<http://blogs.computerworld.com/15581/microsoft_fails_its_customers_after_a_bad_patch>:
The issue is simple, back out a problematic patch. This should be no big
deal, just move some files around and get on with your life. But few
things from Microsoft are simple.
Safe Mode, as many techies know, often fails to boot. This was the case
with the XP computer I tried to rescue from the this weeks deadly
patches. Even Safe Mode with command prompt wouldn't boot.
If Safe Mode had worked, System Restore could have been used to restore
a previous Restore Point. In theory at least, System Restore has shown
itself to be flaky. For example, under XP, System Restore will, at
times, turn itself off and not indicate to the end user that there is a
problem.
Without Safe Mode, most XP users are just screwed. Microsoft's next
solution, for those without image backups, is the Recovery Console.
In practical terms, this is no solution at all.
The obvious first strike against the Recovery Console is that you need a
Windows OS CD, which eliminates most people from the game immediately.
Then you need an optical drive, which eliminates netbook users and those
with ultra compact laptops.
But, in my case, I had both a CD and an optical drive so I gave the
Recovery Console a try. It failed to detect a hard drive in the
computer.
The hard drive was fine. A Linux Live CD was able to copy files off the
drive, and the broken copy of XP at least starts to run before the BSOD.
In this case, it was the Recovery Console itself that needed to be
recovered.
To insure my CD was working, I tried it on another XP machine. This time
the Recovery Console found the hard drive but, as its supposed to do, it
wouldn't run without the administrator password. I know the password for
every userid on the box and tried them all. They were administrator
level users, but not the administrator. So, no go.
In the time of greatest need, when someone is forced to resort to the
Recovery Console, Microsoft puts yet another hurdle in the way.
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