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You can work on your computer from a command line interface. A command line is not graphical but textual. When you use your system recovery cd to fix a potential operating system catastrophe, mastery of command line syntax will come in handy. The command line interface can be accessed from Windows by going to Start--Programs--Command Prompt. What follows is an incredibly minimal tutorial on command line, for better information try here
The command line responds to commands that you type at it. The command line is always honed in on some particular (directory) folder. If I want to use command line to, for example, see all the files in the My Documents directory, I'll need to navigate into that folder and type in the appropriate command to view all its contents. For example, when you throw up the command line interface from Windows, you'll probably be located in the documents and settings folder on the C-drive, represented as C:\>Documents and Settings
From the recovery cd you'll probably just be at C:\>
To view all the files inside the directory you are in, type DIR followed by the Enter key. DIR is a command that should make a list of files should appear. Those files in the list that are followed with a DIR are subfolders.
Try typing DIR follwed by a /? Typing /? after any command brings up a list of subcommands for that particular command.
To navigate around directories, type CD\ or CD [one blank space here] followed by the name of the directory you want to enter. To go to C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents from C:\, do this:
C:\>cd Documents and Settings
C:\Documents and Settings\>cd My Documents
Typing CD.. brings you back to the root directory ( C:\ ).
Okay, so now you can find and display files and folders. To do something to a file requires a command aside from DIR. There are many self-evident commands and subcommands such as MOVE or COPY and some that are not so intuitive, like MD. Do not do anything unless you are certain you know what you are doing. To learn all subcommands, type a command followed by /? like we did with DIR /?. Visit here
for a list of more commands.
All we'll work with here is the COPY command. So let's say I want to copy Mycomps.rtf from My Documents to a floppy disk using command line. I insert the floppy disk into the computer, and now the disk is probably in the A:\. I type CD\Documents and Settings and hit enter. I then type CD\My Documents and hit enter. I am in now in the My Documents folder. I then click DIR to make sure Mycomps.rtf is, indeed, in the folder.
Now I type COPY Mycomps.rtf A:\ and hit enter
Done.
The COPY command is useful for extracting necessary files from a recovery or boot cd onto your hard drive. Go to this site to learn more command line commands.
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