\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

glaston

I rebooted my PC a few days ago and was greeted with a message telling the following file was missing or corrupt.

\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

I couldnt find my original Windows XP CD (as supplied with the PC) so I got a loan of a friends. I changed the boot order and booted up from the CD using the following as a guide http://www.rm.com/Support/TechnicalArticle.asp?cref=TEC210734

Everything seemed to be going ok, took a while and all but eventually I think I got a message saying some file(s) were replaced or something.

Problem is that when I now turn on the PC I just get a blank screen (this is after the point where I can select setup or boot menu).

When I looked back to see what I had done wrong I realised that the recovery CD I used was for XP professional, I think I had XP home installed on my PC.

Have I killed it?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

JonathanAnon

Pity you didnt post before trying the repair install (with the wrong Operating System). You may have been able to boot to safe mode or last known good config. Anyway if you are just getting a blank screen when the PC attempts to boot from the hard drive, then it doesnt sound good.

In my opinion you are looking at having to reinstall the OS from scratch. You will need to find your XP CD to do this. Is there a windows XP sticker on the side of the computer indicating what version it came with? Also, Do you have any files on the hard drive that you cant afford to lose?

glaston

I looked around for a bit but couldnt see how I could boot up in safe mode. I just thought that the absence of the named file would prevent system from booting at all.

Yeah the machine came with XP home edition (thats what the sticker on the side says).

To get out of this mess do I need my own unique XP CD or will any XP SP2 home edition CD work?

Most of my important stuff is backed up to an external hard drive.


Thanks

JonathanAnon

glaston wrote: »

I looked around for a bit but couldnt see how I could boot up in safe mode. I just thought that the absence of the named file would prevent system from booting at all. Yeah the machine came with XP home edition (thats what the sticker on the side says).To get out of this mess do I need my own unique XP CD or will any XP SP2 home edition CD work? Most of my important stuff is backed up to an external hard drive.

Safe mode may not have worked like you said, but it's usually the first in the list of things to try. If you have backups then all you can just wipe the hard drive, and put an operating system on the PC.

On home PCs, I find a lot of the time that the users generally always lose the XP CD. I have found that if you get a CD with the same XP version / SP level as the sticker on the side of the box, the code on the sticker usually works when you install. I'm not sure if this is a golden rule, but it works for me. Can you get your hands on one, or what happened your own one?

Just wondering if you had issues with the hard drive before.. The error you got could be just a software issue, or it could be signs of a hard drive failing. If it's a software issue, this will be resolved by reinstalling windows, but if it's sign of a hardware failure there is no point in reinstalling windows on that particular hard drive.

Safe Mode is unlikely to work if the system hive is corrupt - you'd get the same error.

If you've already began a (unsuccessful) repair then there's nothing you can do except to perform a clean install. But I would be looking at why the hive got corrupt in the first place, sometimes it's a blip but it could easily be bad sectors on the hard disk.

glaston

Not sure what caused the original failure.
My mouse started to act funny so I removed the ball and messed around with the rollers inside it. Vertical movement was fine but as soon as I touched the horizontal roller the mouse was all jumpy. Anyway I decided to reboot the PC and when it came back up I had the corrupt/missing file error.

PC is a number of years old but to date I havent had any problems with the hard drive.

Since my original post I managed to get my hands on an XP home disc and I have run the chkdsk /r command. It was very slow until it got to 55% complete and now it seems to have just hung, no progress in the last hour

JonathanAnon

Safe Mode is unlikely to work if the system hive is corrupt - you'd get the same error.

I agree. I usually just go through the checklist as Microsoft suggest, in the order they suggest. Well, aside from the Repair Install which I have found takes ages and never fixes the issues.

glaston wrote: »

Since my original post I managed to get my hands on an XP home disc and I have run the chkdsk /r command. It was very slow until it got to 55% complete and now it seems to have just hung, no progress in the last hour

a) Can you get your hands on the proper recovery disk
b) Are there any important files that you need which are still on the hard drive?
See how you get on with checkdisk, but it may be the case that your hard drive is failing.