Win XP could not start.....

[Stingray]

Due to improper win shutdown, I am getting the "Windows Xp could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \windows\system32\config\system. I've been trying to boot to the xp cd but it never finishes getting to the screen I need to so I can do a repair on the existing load. Any ideas out there?? It boots to the cd fine but never finishes... just sticks on the screen after the 3rd party scsi stuff. It's a AMD processor with 1GB ram, can't remember what the mboard is, but nothing special. Never had the issue before. Thanks in advance!

[drasnor]

There's several possibilities for what's wrong.

Windows being unable to start is almost certainly due to filesystem corruption on your Windows drive. However, not being able to successfully boot the Windows CD points to a hardware problem that may be an additional problem or related to your filesystem corruption.

Suggestions:
1) Run memtest (http://www.memtest.org/). This will identify problems with your memory subsystem including processor, RAM, and memory controller. If memtest completes a couple passes without errors then we can eliminate faulty memory. This is important because the Windows recovery environment loads into system memory and a problem here will cause the kind of behavior you were experiencing with the Windows CD.

2) Verify your Windows CD has no scratches. If it does you'll need to borrow one from someone else.

3) Check your drive cables to the CD-ROM and hard drive for damage due to fatigue (excessive bending) or fan ingestion. I've had problems with drive corruption due to intermittent cable failure that didn't go away until someone else thought to replace the cable.

4) Try a different CD-ROM. Yours may be going bad.

5) Try putting your hard drive in another PC and running chkdsk from there.

-drasnor :fold:

[Thrax]

You have two solutions, both of which are outlined in this guide:

http://icrontic.com/articles/repair_install_windows_xp

If the repair install does not work, you'll have to do a full reformat. If there's any data you want to save, follow this guide: http://icrontic.com/articles/easy_data_recovery

[Stingray]

Thanks for the info! I wanted to update what I've done and where this little project is. I pulled the Maxtor ATA drive out and slaved it into another XP system. I can see and get at all and can copy to an external usb HD if need be. My question now is, can I replace the corrupted system files on the drive that won't boot and if so, how? would anyone have the steps needed and the files to copy over or rename?

[drasnor]

Right-click on the volume in My Computer, select Properties. Click on the Disk Tools tab at the top and the Check Disk for Errors button. Run the check with correct errors enabled.

-drasnor :fold: