Corrupt System File, need help
CaffeineMe
Cedar Rapids, IA
Working on a buddy's PC, XP Home edition, Dude, it's a Dell.
At boot, was receiving error that \windows\system32\config\system was missing or corrupt. I got out his boot CD, booted to recovery console, ran chkdsk, rebooted. Then restored SYSTEM from \windows\repair folder (I renamed the existing system file before recovering, so it's still around).
Now, XP at least begins to load (splash screen), then hangs. Tried recovery console again, and when I go into Recovery Console, now it wants me to enter Admin PW. We thought we knew what it was, we were wrong. I tried cracking the PW using Emergency Boot CD .5 and the PW reset tool that it has, ineffective. Tried to download .6, that's been ineffective also.
Any ideas on how I can either:
1. Force XP to continue loading? Last known good and safe modes result in same behavior.
2. Figure out how to hack/crack the Admin PW so I can at least get into the recovery console again and restore the original(the corrupt one) System file? Occassionally, just the rename will be enough to jerk it back into place (stranger things have happened).
3. Finally, sanity check here, if I just reinstall XP, will My Documents be overwritten? So long as I don't format drive, all data (except for C:\Windows) ought to be safe....right??? Just looking for some confirmation on #3. Thanks all!
Bill
At boot, was receiving error that \windows\system32\config\system was missing or corrupt. I got out his boot CD, booted to recovery console, ran chkdsk, rebooted. Then restored SYSTEM from \windows\repair folder (I renamed the existing system file before recovering, so it's still around).
Now, XP at least begins to load (splash screen), then hangs. Tried recovery console again, and when I go into Recovery Console, now it wants me to enter Admin PW. We thought we knew what it was, we were wrong. I tried cracking the PW using Emergency Boot CD .5 and the PW reset tool that it has, ineffective. Tried to download .6, that's been ineffective also.
Any ideas on how I can either:
1. Force XP to continue loading? Last known good and safe modes result in same behavior.
2. Figure out how to hack/crack the Admin PW so I can at least get into the recovery console again and restore the original(the corrupt one) System file? Occassionally, just the rename will be enough to jerk it back into place (stranger things have happened).
3. Finally, sanity check here, if I just reinstall XP, will My Documents be overwritten? So long as I don't format drive, all data (except for C:\Windows) ought to be safe....right??? Just looking for some confirmation on #3. Thanks all!
Bill
0
Comments
But run memtest prior to the reinstall as it is likely the cause of the file system borking in the first place. Never hurts!
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
Download the software to make a boot cd. Then follow the instructions on the site.
This will allow you to change the admin password on any NT/2K/XP box
If a repair install is not an option then you can simply reinstall XP and as long as you don't format it won't loose anything. Give the system a new computer name durring the install and then for example if the old user was named "greg" and his crap is stored in My Documents in a directory called greg. If you reiunstall and give the computer a new system name like "newdell" then his new data directory for the user greg will be in my documents but named greg.newdell. And you can just copy his crap over. I hate home XP but I'm pretty sure it works like XP pro and thats what it does.
Tex
then just back up the data, format and reinstall. The fact however that you had a corrupt system file and then windows hangs after the fix concerns me more. is that drive on a raid array at all? Hosed system files, Ive found, means there is a hardware problem, usually a failing drive or raid componant...
Gobbles
But I have had it happen to clients just one time and never happened again in two years also so it might be a weird once in a lifetime event or just like lawnman said you could be seeing early signs of drive failure perhaps.
Tex