Won't boot: File missing or corrupt

CyrixInsteadCyrixInstead Stoke-on-Trent, England Icrontian
edited June 2005 in Hardware
Help!

I turned my machine on yesterday and it booted up, froze straight away, then restarted. Now it won't boot to Windows, with a message something along the lines of 'Missing or corrupt file C:\Windows.....\System32\System'

It suggest trying to recover using the recovery console but I 'm not sure what to do with that.

I don't have access to a computer later today but would appreciate any help as I do not have a backup of any files and can't afford to lose them.

~Cyrix

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    Assuming this is WinXP:

    To get to the recovery console, you boot off a Windows XP CD and go through all the normal steps as if you were going to reinstall... You'll get to an option that offers the choice of Windows XP Recovery Console - select that and then you get to a command prompt that offers a set of tools that might help. I'd run chkdsk /r first. You can type help for a list of commands. Try fixboot as well.
  • GobblesGobbles Ventura California
    edited May 2004
    you dont want recovery console. You want installation repair. Follow primes steps but you will get to appoint right before installation, and it will give you the option to repair your installation. That should fix your corrupted boot sector. You will also probably need to reinstall updates and service packs...

    Gobbles
  • gtghmgtghm New
    edited May 2004
    Off hand, it sounds like there might be a hardware problem...

    Hope not though....

    "g"
  • CyrixInsteadCyrixInstead Stoke-on-Trent, England Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    There was a similar problem with one of the other guys computers on the forums that turned out to be hardware. I'll try a repair.

    Cheers guys.

    ~Cyrix
  • ScalamungerScalamunger
    edited June 2005
    I have the same problem as you only i cant use a recovery disk or anything like that because my keyboard isnt working we hav tried 2 keyboards but i dont think that it is possible to install as it doesnt startup it just goes on one black screen with ritin then another with the missing file it is the same missing file mentioned above

    how can i fix this preferbly without having to buy a new mother board if that is wat is rong nor a new hard drive etc
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited June 2005
    you need to reset your boot order so that CDROM is higher than HDD
    to do this, you're going to need to get into your bios
    to do that, you're going to need a working keyboard

    it also sounds like, since your keyboard aren't working, that your bios isn't correctly support USB input devices. try a PS/2 keyboard, or a USB keyboard with a PS/2 adapter (not a wireless keyboard, there are latency issues...)
  • ScalamungerScalamunger
    edited June 2005
    Thanks for that we hav tried a keyboard is PS2 and we will try a newer one coming up soon any suggestions if a cable key board doesn't work?
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited June 2005
    this sounds very similar to a problem my friend was having, where for whatever reason i could not get her bios to recognize the keyboard, no matter which keyboard i tried. i ended up doing a repair install with the harddrive in a different machine...
  • ScalamungerScalamunger
    edited June 2005
    thanks everyone for this but wegt the wireless keyboard working and i formatted thwe PC so everyfin turned out for the best. i gt some useful comments from here so i will use this site for future problems
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