[Question] How does a Repair install work?

[Nakatomi2010]

I understand it's purpose, but what I'm wondering is how it "works", that is to say when you tell it to do the repair in text mode, what exactly does it do that allows all the settings to stay put...

I understand that you wait for the 3 screen, hit 'r', etc etc... I want to know what's going on behind the scenes.....

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--Sonic

[Sonic]

Nothing is done behind the recovery console !

You can execute chkdsk to repair filesystem. you can configure services and you can manage files too.

edit: okay I've re-read your post, for the 'repair' install, windows overwrite all system file by the original of the disc (so you must re-update windows after). All main registry is restored, if it's a customizable regkey, it doesn't touch the key. The security template is re-executed too. But I can't offer to you the full operation because Microsoft doesn't offer the information.