Disable windows recovery screen

H

HyperByter

Hello community !

First of all, i m glad that such forum even exists despite xp being burried long time ago.
But lets get to the problem , i got a question..
How can i disable windows recovery screen ? menu that appears after sudden shutdown ( either crash or out of power ), where the options are safe mode, last known good configuration, start windows normally.. etc.. The reason why i wanna disable it, is that i m using this system as server ( for home uses ) its all well configured running just fine ( RDP, FTP, and even Wake-on-lan! ) and there problem comes, when server is being powered off by some unexpected force. i can turn it on remotely using wake on lan packet, but windows boots up into recovery screen and wont continue after countdown, it all hangs there and there is nothing i can do anymore. cant shut it down remotely because windows isnt running, cant boot it remotely because wake on lan only powers on computer but wont procced thru any error. It is easy to disable this screen in windows 7 using bcdedit command line, is there something similiar in windows xp ? any help will be appreciated.
 
wish I could help more, but I like the screen since it is to point up potential problems, such as a hard shutdown, which can corrupt data, :)
 
i know it can cause corrupted data, but my point is not to shutdown system forcefully and start it without problems, I m just trying to solve problem when electricity fails for some reason and need to boot system remotely.
 
You should be able to change the timeout value of the recovery menu.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/devtest/changing-the-boot-menu-time-out

Change it to a small value like 5 seconds. After the timer expires it should load the default option 'Start Windows Normally'.

P.S., I've never had data corruption happen due to forced/unexpected shutdown on any of my Windows systems. None of my computers were in the midst of any file operations at the time so your mileage may vary but if you're just running it as a server shutting it down unexpectedly shouldn't be a problem. Try adjusting the timeout, then pulling the AC plug to simulate power loss. Send a WOL packet and see how it works then post your results. I would test it myself but I will be working all day.
 
Well my job got cancelled due to weather. Good thing too because I just noticed an error in my previous post.

Nevermind that link I posted, that refers to bcdedit which is for Vista and higher. Here's a list of all bootcfg command line options:
https://www.computerhope.com/bootcfg.htm

I tried changing it to 5 seconds on my XP laptop with the following command:

Code: 
BOOTCFG /Timeout 30

I pulled the battery out of my laptop and powered it on with AC adapter. After XP loaded I pulled out the AC adapter to simulate power loss. I plugged the AC adapter back in and powered on. XP booted normally, no recovery screen. ??? Repeated process, XP booted normally, no recovery screen. This is XP Pro SP3 MCE 2005 last updated 2009.

So I'm not sure why my laptop stubbornly refuses to enter the recovery screen after power loss, Since I've had Windows 7 and 10 show the screen after power loss. Oh well.

Hopefully the timeout option will help you since I can't trigger the recovery on my XP laptop. Might be helpful to invest in a UPS for your server if you can't find a solution.

Please note I didn't suffer any data loss because the laptop was idle at the time. If your PC is in the process of any file/disk operations such as moving/updating files or directories or drive defragmentation and you suffer a power loss you absolutely will lose data and possibly the ability to boot your OS.
 
Well i cant test it right now, i m out of home for couple of days. It is strange you cant trigger recovery screen on your laptop, maybe battery is saving the day somehow ? :D anyway, i tried to play with timers a bit before i left. When i disabled first option ( time to select operating system ) and left second option enabled but set it to 0, it sometimes booted sometimes not, idk how is this possible, maybe there are more factors. my server is not in heavy harddrive traffic, i barely use it few times a day. I will try to play with it a little more and see what the results will be. Anyway thanks for help
 
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