IBM Product Recovery CD won't run

[b1rdd0g]

I have an old PC that I intend to scrub the hard drive and then reinstall with the IBM Product Recovery CD (Windows 2000) that I got with the machine. However, I have been unable to get the recover.exe program to run from the CD. It always errors out with "NLS ID NOT FOUND". I have no idea how to fix/circumvent this error, nevertheless, I still have the CDs which have the following in the recovery directory:
D:\RECOVERY>dir
Volume in drive D is CQZUPUSRAC
Volume Serial Number is 64D5-135B

Directory of D:\RECOVERY

06/01/2000 06:59 AM <DIR> .
06/01/2000 06:59 AM <DIR> ..
02/18/2000 07:26 AM 18,005 1.PCX
02/24/2000 09:41 AM 937,019 BOOTDNT1.DSK
02/25/1999 04:52 AM 693,881 BOOTDNT2.DSK
04/27/1999 05:11 PM 698,393 BOOTDNT3.DSK
11/18/1999 09:14 AM 3,721 CLNDRIVE.EXE
11/18/1999 09:14 AM 7,503 CLNRECOV.EXE
05/12/2000 03:10 AM 173,149 CP30AUS.IMD
07/30/1998 04:15 AM 48,698,168 CP31CUS.IMZ
07/22/1998 05:59 AM 60,306,018 CP32BUS.IMZ
08/18/1999 12:11 PM 52,480,479 CP35CUS.IMZ
10/09/1998 01:01 PM 607 CPD001A.IMZ
05/25/1999 02:40 AM 1,392,743 CPD023A.IMZ
[snip]
02/29/2000 04:43 AM 297 CQZUPUS.IMZ
12/17/1999 03:13 AM 493,535 CXH012A.IMZ
11/18/1999 09:14 AM 54,200 DISKDOS.EXE
11/18/1999 09:14 AM 6,658 FIND.EXE
11/18/1999 09:14 AM 30,255 FMODIFY.EXE
11/18/1999 09:20 AM 6 FORMAT.ARF
03/19/2000 01:29 PM 29,172 FSPACE.EXE
11/18/1999 09:14 AM 14,168 LOADDSKF.EXE
11/18/1999 09:14 AM 31,915 PKUNZIP.EXE
01/05/2000 08:00 PM 29,582 PQER.EXE
01/05/2000 08:00 PM 814,787 PQER.OVL
01/05/2000 08:00 PM 30,980 PQER.PQG
03/05/2000 08:00 PM 1,245 PQER.RTC
11/18/1999 09:14 AM 530 REBOOT.EXE
01/23/2000 08:22 AM 129,762 RECOVER.EXE
06/02/2000 04:28 AM 1,982 RECOVER.INI
03/21/2000 06:57 AM 19,949 RECOVUS.SCR
02/22/2000 08:41 AM 154 RESTOR1.SCP
03/20/2000 02:53 AM 126 RESTOR2.SCP
03/17/2000 02:16 AM 176 SRESTOR1.SCP
03/20/2000 02:53 AM 148 SRESTOR2.SCP
01/22/1997 05:41 AM 512 SYSBOOT.SEC
68 File(s) 306,772,300 bytes
2 Dir(s) 0 bytes free
I found my way to this forum by the *.IMZ file extension, which seems to be WinImage compressed files. One possible way for me to circumvent my problem would be to simply extract the compressed image files from the CD and then create my own WinImage recovery CD. Does that sound possible, given the contents of this directory? If possible, can anyone suggest a procedure or a place to start learning WinImage well enough to accomplish this task? Thanks in advance!

[jaclaz]

Unfortunately each and every manufacturer (and sometimes different models of the same manufacturer) use different approaches to create (and restore) recovery data.

You can use Winimage allright to view what is inside the various .IMZ files, provided that they are actually compressed RAW images, but I do not think that without LOTS of knowledge about DOS and Windows 2K setup/files it will be possible to re-create anything working.

Just from the names I presume:
1) that 01/22/1997 05:41 AM 512 SYSBOOT.SEC is a RAW bootsector
2) the files:
02/24/2000 09:41 AM 937,019 BOOTDNT1.DSK
02/25/1999 04:52 AM 693,881 BOOTDNT2.DSK
04/27/1999 05:11 PM 698,393 BOOTDNT3.DSK
are (compressed?) floppy images of some kindm that you should be able to open with Winimage, however the file:
11/18/1999 09:14 AM 14,168 LOADDSKF.EXE
should be the native DOS program to access them
3) that all .IMZ may be compatible with Winimage (but they also could be some other kind of compressed files) I would try, if Winimage does not "see" them right, to try open them with 7-zip
4) the 06/02/2000 04:28 AM 1,982 RECOVER.INI file is obviously a file holding configuration data for
01/23/2000 08:22 AM 129,762 RECOVER.EXE
this can be as well a plain text .ini file (try opening it with Notepad) or any kind of proprietary format.
5) the names starting with "PQ":
01/05/2000 08:00 PM 29,582 PQER.EXE
01/05/2000 08:00 PM 814,787 PQER.OVL
01/05/2000 08:00 PM 30,980 PQER.PQG
03/05/2000 08:00 PM 1,245 PQER.RTC
could well be part of some PowerQuest (original makers of Partition Magic before Symantec bought them) utility, possibly including or part pf DriveImage that I seem to remember was able to create something called "EasyRestore" CD, just found with google a copy of the manual in PDF:
http://www.consultoriadomestica.com.br/ ... ESTORE.PDF
Html version here:
http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:Q3 ... ESTORE.PDF
maybe you can get more info from there.
6)Since the entire CD appears to be DOS based, most probably it is a bootable CD using El-Torito Floppy Emulationm see this:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18306
You should try extracting the boot image from the CD and see what is in THAT.
A tool capable of doing the above is Bart's BBIE:
http://nu2.nu/bbie/

jaclaz

[b1rdd0g]

Thanks for the info, jclaz! You've provided some really good hints. Let me ask a few questions in the categories in which you cast your assumptions:
1) I would assume that the boot sector would need to get copied to the C:\ drive at some point in the restore process, right?
2) There was actually a boot diskette image (1.44MB) included in the root directory of the Product Recovery CD. I used a utility to copy it to a floppy diskette, and I can boot from that floppy. It seems to load Win98, but I guess the OS for the recovery program is irrelevant to the intended OS recovery (Win2K Pro). However, the restore.exe refuses to run and leaves me stuck at a DOS prompt. The CD was supposed to be bootable, too, but it never did work. IBM Support sent me a floppy image that I used to do a successful recovery many years ago, but I have apparently lost that boot floppy!! AAaarrgh!
3) You mentioned 7-zip. I've never heard of that one, but notice that there is a pkunzip.exe in the same directory. I guess I could try to take a peek inside those compressed image files with pkunzip.
4) I'll take a look at recover.ini and see if there is anything that I can comprehend inside.
5) It sounds like the PowerQuest stuff is designed to rebuild my original C: partitions. Perhaps I can run them once booted to Win98 onto the floppy.
6) It sounds like you are suggesting that I might be able to repair the boot image and create a new CD that is actually bootable. That sounds difficult.

It sounds as if I might be able to manually reproduce the steps required to recover:
1) Use the program to wipe the C: drive thoroughly
2) Place the Product Recovery CD in the CDROM drive
3 ) Boot from the floppy to a DOS prompt (where it leaves me after it fails)
4) Run the PowerQuest stuff to rebuild the C: partitions
5) Copy the boot sector to C:
6) Run the pkunzip to unpack the series of compressed images onto C:

Does this sound like it would work?

[jaclaz]

1) I would assume that the boot sector would need to get copied to the C:\ drive at some point in the restore process, right?

Yes, though from the overall procedure it might well be a MBR, instead of a bootsector.

2) There was actually a boot diskette image (1.44MB) included in the root directory of the Product Recovery CD. I used a utility to copy it to a floppy diskette, and I can boot from that floppy. It seems to load Win98, but I guess the OS for the recovery program is irrelevant to the intended OS recovery (Win2K Pro). However, the restore.exe refuses to run and leaves me stuck at a DOS prompt.

Well, yes, the PQ programs are DOS ones, so they need DOS (possibly 7.x a.ka. Windows 9x one) to run, then they most probably simply uncompress the RAW drive image, stored in "chunks" in the various .IMZ files.
Before that, most probably the drive is "cleaned" and re-partitioned.
I would try, once booted from the floppy and with current directory D : \ Recovery\ (a.k.a. the CD drive), to try running the CLNDRIVE.EXE and the CLNRECOV.EXE, that to me sound as memonics for:
CLeaNtheDrive and fromaCLeaNeddrivestartRECOVer
(o.e. ot os possible that RECOVER.EXE is called by one of the two programs, and normally fails because it needs some parameter.

3) You mentioned 7-zip. I've never heard of that one, but notice that there is a pkunzip.exe in the same directory. I guess I could try to take a peek inside those compressed image files with pkunzip.

How old are you?
PKware was the software house that actually made the .zip compression format popular, PKZIP and PKUNZIP have been for years the leading COMMAND LINE ONLY compression utility.
By the time you will get familiar with the command line options of PKunzip in order to peek inside the compressed files, man will get to Mars (and will also have time to come back and tell us the story of the mission )
Notjing really difficult, mind you, everyone have been using PKzip/PKunzip for years, but definitely it was't/isn't "user friendly".
Since the year 1992, EVERY windows GUI compression utility is capable of reading/accessing/modifying PKzip compressed archives, including Winzip , Winrar, 7-zip (completely freeware) and hundreds of other ones, on a much more friendly way than good ol' PKZIP/PKUNZIP.

5) It sounds like the PowerQuest stuff is designed to rebuild my original C: partitions. Perhaps I can run them once booted to Win98 onto the floppy.

Yep, that's the idea.

6) It sounds like you are suggesting that I might be able to repair the boot image and create a new CD that is actually bootable. That sounds difficult.

Not particularly difficult, but I would consider doing it of marginal priority, i.e. I would take the time for doing that only after having managed to restore the machine manually, in order to automate it if and when you will need it again.

Does this sound like it would work?

Well, NO, you seem to make it more simple (or more difficult ) than what it is probable that will happen.
As I see it there are two foreseeable scenarios:
a. You find the "right" way to start the FULLY AUTOMATED recovery process (MUCH simpler than what you described)
b. You fail in the above and have to manually extract all files, find a way to re-partition and re-format properly the hard disk and copying manually to it all the files, making the result a bootable 2K system (MUCH, MUCH more difficult than what you described).

jaclaz

[b1rdd0g]

OK, it's late and I'm getting really really sleepy, but I want to ask some additional questions before I crash:
1) What is the image type of the file CP30AUS.IMD? I'm thinking this is a disk image file of some sort. Perhaps this file organizes all the many *.IMZ files into a contiguous whole during the restore?
2) I've been trying to deciper the pqer.exe program, but I can't quite seem to hit upon the right syntax to use. This program will run, and if I provide it the correct switches, I might just be able to get the recovery process (if not the recover.exe program...) running. I tried the following syntax:
pqer /cmd=Y:\recovery\srestor1.scp /img=Y:\recovery\CP30AUS.IMD
This almost worked, except when it tried to open this image file, it prompted for a password. I have no idea what password to use for this.

I would appreciate any further illumination or hints you can supply me.
Thanks!

[jaclaz]

I have no idea about what the .IMD file can be.

If the image has been password proteected, according to the guide I linked to, it has to be passed to command line by a /PWD command.

Password-Protected Image Files
If the image file was password-protected when created in Drive Image Pro, the user is
prompted for a password before the restore process begins.
IMPORTANT!
If you choose to password-protect the image file, you must provide the
password to your users or specify it with the /PWD command line switch
before they can access the system recovery CD.

I would search ALL files on CD for keywords:
PQER
/PWD

Maybe it is there in plain text.

jaclaz

[kocoman]

Is there any way to replace the pkunzip.exe or pqer.exe with another "ECHO parameters/arguments and then PAUSE command?" (that is a also pure dos exe?)

[jaclaz]

Is there any way to replace the pkunzip.exe or pqer.exe with another "ECHO parameters/arguments and then PAUSE command?" (that is a also pure dos exe?)

I am sorry but I completely fail to understand the sense of your question.

Can you better explain what you want/need to do?
Please also giving some background...

jaclaz