Recovery Console installation: "error reading information from netmap.inf" (814172)

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SYMPTOMS

When you install the recovery console on Windows 2000 with "winnt32.exe/ cmdcons" command, the following error message might pop up: "error reading information from netmap.inf"

CAUSE

The data type of the value DevicePath is incorrect. The DevicePath value is located under the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\

RESOLUTION

In order for Windows 2000 to be able to read the string and expand embedded variables correctly, the DevicePath data type has to be REG_EXPAND_SZ (Variable length Unicode NULL-terminated string).
Do the following to correct the problem:

Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
Locate and select the DevicePath value under the following key in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
On the Edit menu, click Multi String, paste your customized path entries, and then click OK
Quit Registry Editor.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about how to use the DevicePath value, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: : 285902OEMPnpDriversPath in Sysprep.inf is Limited to 2047 characters

Notice

If you simply double-click the value DevicePath in regedt32, the String Editor (for Reg_Sz) will open instead of the MultiString Editor (for Reg_Expand_Sz). A Reg_Expand_Sz may contain embedded environment variables such as %systemroot%. When Windows 2000 reads the value, it automatically expands the variable %systemroot% to a full path such as C:\Winnt.