Windows 7 Diagnostics and Recovery
By Patrick Nelson
Windows
7 includes the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset
(Microsoft DaRT.)
It’s part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) which is available at the Software Assurance Windows 7 Enterprise level.
Key elements of the toolset are recovery of PC’s that have become unstable; diagnostics of probable causes of trouble; and repair of unbootable machines—all without re-imaging.
The advantages of using this tool, rather than re-imaging are that you retain user settings and the user’s personalization.
Downtime is also reduced through faster recovery. Reduced
downtime can obviously mean less lost productivity.
There are fourteen tools in this Windows 7 toolset. The
principal ones include Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) Commander
for booting unresponsive PC’s.
Crash Analyzer is a diagnostics tool for determining
crash causes. System Restore is a tool for removing changes
that could have caused the crash.
The toolset has an offline boot environment for when Safe
Mode or a regular boot fails. IT can keep the machine
off-line while they recover files and remove malware.
The full Microsoft DaRT kit includes all existing Windows
Recovery Environment (Windows RE) tools, Disk Commander, ERD
Registry Editor, Standalone System Sweeper, LockSmith, Crash
Analyzer, Explorer, File Search, File Restore, Hotfix
Uninstall, System File Repair, System Information, TCP/IP
Config, Map Network Drive, Solution Wizard, Services &
Drivers, Disk Management, Disk Wipe, Event Viewer, Autoruns
and Zip/Unzip.
The latest version Of Microsoft DaRT is 6.5. It was released in MDOP 2009 R2, which was launched about the same time as Windows 7.
Changes from 6.0 are Windows 7 support and Windows Server 2008 R2 support are added. All other operating system support is removed.
Remapping the offline drive letters to match the online drive letters is added under certain circumstances. The driver manufacturer is listed now for display drivers. Microsoft DaRT 6.5 has a number of known issues which are unresolved.
They include drive letter remapping issues and minor issues like Hotfix not uninstalling service packs under certain circumstances.
You can check the known issues here.
Microsoft DaRT is a major part of MDOP and is all tied into Microsoft’s effort to make migration from previous operating systems to Windows 7 easier than upgrades have been in the past. Microsoft DaRT is a part of Microsoft’s attempt to address common system and application failures that have plagued operating system manageability at the IT level.
It’s one of a massive set of Microsoft Windows 7-oriented
resources available to IT now with this operating system
launch.