Repair Windows with Linux

Intro

Invalid System File
Corurpt or missing : C:\WINDOWS\SYSTM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
Put Windows CD Press r blaah!

Warning: Do it carefully or you might end up in reinstalling :)

Pre Requisites
Any Linux OS, Live CD might work as well.

What to do?
Boot into the linux OS, and run as root dosfsck -a /dev/sdaX
where /dev/sdaX is the Drive windows is installed on.
This should fix a corrupt file system.
(Applicable only for vFAT, NTFS no idea :)

Reboot the system
If it doesn't work again

Boot into linux
and do the following as root

Mount the drive windows is installed on to say "/mnt/c"

# cd /mnt/c/windows/system32
# cp -r config /home/some/directory
# cp ../Repair/system config/system

NOTE: Copy other files such as software from Repair to config only if they are shown as corrupt.

Reboot the system

Now it should boot into windows and show your desktop.
Now use system restore to get back to your initial state.

Any doubts ?

tracert Program (path to the source)

Command Line :

C:\Documents and Settings\User10>tracert

Usage: tracert [-d] [-h maximum_hops] [-j host-list] [-w timeout] target_name

Options:
    -d                 Do not resolve addresses to hostnames.
    -h maximum_hops    Maximum number of hops to search for target.
    -j host-list       Loose source route along host-list.
    -w timeout         Wait timeout milliseconds for each reply.

What?
Trace route is a handy little program that shows the networks / servers your request goes through to finally get you to the destination server.
To try it out just do

tracert

any_site_here

You will get a response similar to the one given below:

C:\Documents and Settings\User10>tracert digitalpbk.blogspot.com

Tracing route to blogspot.l.google.com [72.14.207.191]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     *     2597 ms     8 ms  192.168.1.1
  2    17 ms    18 ms    14 ms  59.93.0.1
  3     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5     *       56 ms    59 ms  125.16.156.37
  6   135 ms    63 ms    63 ms  125.21.167.25
  7  3559 ms   316 ms   284 ms  sl-gw39-nyc-10-2.sprintlink.net [144.223.157.149]
  8  1040 ms   288 ms   286 ms  sl-bb21-nyc-3-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.13.57]
  9   593 ms   285 ms   290 ms  sl-bb22-nyc-14-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.7.102]
 10   371 ms   283 ms   535 ms  sl-crs1-nyc-0-8-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.7.107]
 11   287 ms   286 ms   287 ms  sl-bb23-pen-4-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.20.123]
 12   291 ms   292 ms   328 ms  sl-bb24-rly-4-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.20.210]
 13   715 ms   299 ms     *     sl-st22-ash-6-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.20.189]
 14   318 ms   303 ms  1538 ms  144.223.246.18
 15     *      773 ms   307 ms  209.85.130.18
 16  1151 ms   407 ms   409 ms  72.14.238.232
 17   432 ms     *      378 ms  209.85.250.110
 18  2107 ms   747 ms     *     66.249.94.90
 19     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 20     *        *     2829 ms  eh-in-f191.google.com [72.14.207.191]

Trace complete.

It shows that the request went through 19 systems to reach google.. phew!! :)

Have fun :)

Linux should also have one ?
can anyone comment on that ?