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Disabling Drivers from within Windows PE/RE modes


From this article:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd314388.aspx

Disabling Drivers or Services

ERD Commander and Windows PE both allow you to disable drivers or services that are hanging Windows at boot, albeit with different levels of difficulty.
To use Windows PE to enable and disable problematic services, first boot to Windows PE (be sure you have necessary storage controller drivers for the system being booted). Start up the Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and select the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive.

NOTE - At this point it's advisable to backup the System hive by saving it as (for example) SYSTEM.BAK    If you don't back it up and you make a mistake - you've got no one but yourself to blame if the system fails to boot.  If if fails to boot you've got 3 options:  fix what you messed up, a repair install, or a wipe and reinstall.  This is a heck of a lot of work to do and can easily be avoided by backing up your registry hive BEFORE you start changing things.

From the file menu, select Load Hive, and browse to C:\Windows\System32\Config\system (adjusting to fit your own Windows path), and specify a name to use for the hive while editing (the name doesn't matter). Browse into that new key\CurrentControlSet\Services\servicename and take note of the Start value, which can be 0-4:
0—Boot start: started by the operating system loader first.
1—System start: loaded during kernel startup after boot start drivers.
2—Auto start: Service Control Manager (SCM) starts these next.
3—Demand start: started on demand by the SCM.
4—Disabled: will not load.
Set the service or driver you need to disable to 4. Do this carefully—some drivers have interdependencies, and if you disable them and not their dependencies, you may crash your system, not just hang it (research the dependencies in the services.msc applet or at http://www.blackviper.com ). When you're finished, unload the registry hive and reboot your system. The driver or service should no longer hold up the boot process.