help windows\system32\config\system missing
im not an xp user but im trying to help out my daughter
this is what we are getting
windows could not start because the following file i mising or corrupt:
\windows\ytem32\onfig\system
you can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the orginal setup CD-rom.
Selet "r" a the first sreen to start repair
will this delete all her downloaded files? is there a way to start xp in msdos mode and do a regedit instead? i had this happen with w98 and doing a regedit saved me anyone have any ideas
thank
this is what we are getting
windows could not start because the following file i mising or corrupt:
\windows\ytem32\onfig\system
you can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the orginal setup CD-rom.
Selet "r" a the first sreen to start repair
will this delete all her downloaded files? is there a way to start xp in msdos mode and do a regedit instead? i had this happen with w98 and doing a regedit saved me anyone have any ideas
thank
0
Comments
Boot from the cd. Do NOT do a repair using recovery console. proceed like you were doing a fresh install but BEFORE you select which disk to install to it will look for previous installs and ask if you want to repair it. DO NOT INSTALL A NEW COPY! Hit "r" to repair bt only when it shows you the previous install disk/directory not at the revovery console prompt!
If it does not see the old install post back as the filesystem is just corrupt and it can't read the boot.ini and I'll walk you through that repair. It isnt hard. And no she isnt going to lose any files as long as the disk is operating properly!
I've done this maybe... A hundred times.
Tex
If you can boot from the XP cd let me know and I'll start there or I"ll walk you through getting that far if you can't get at least booted from the CD.
If you can boot and the file system isnt corrupt you just let it keep booting. It makes you hit enter or something saying you want to install, then it asks if you want to repair using recovery console and for now say "n" a few minutes later it looks for your old installs and if the disk file system is OK it should show you the disk and directory on whcih XP is installed and ask if you want to repair the existing installation and at that point I think it makes you even hit "R" for repair.
If it ever asks you to format or create a partition DON'T DO IT ! It shouldn't ask you on a repair install. So if you see that in any way we have deeper problems. BAIL OUT. Do not proceed.
As long as you do a repair install it keeps all your files and programs etc... but its got to be a repair not a fresh install. And its the second prompt about repairing NOT the first one asking if you want to use recovery console. Its only a total of like three mouse clicks and hitting "R" to get the repair going!
You can even call me on the phone and I'll walk you through it while your on the phone if your worried or in a hurry. This sounds scary but its not. Will take 5 to 10 minutes to get ya going on the phone depending on if we have other problems etc.. Get the XP cd and let me know when your ready to start if you want phone assistance. Look at it this way. I do this professionaly and your getting $100 an hour free tech support for the price of a phone call. And yes thats a great reason to pass www.short-media.com along to your friends at school or college. Very few if any web sites will actually have profesionals willing to give out their phone number and offer free tech support to other members like this. And its one reason short-media is so very cool.
Tex
let me know if I can help
Tex
I am expriencing the same problem as the user your were helping in this thread. I have follwed all the above mentioned steps to no avail. I have tried changing the boot drive order but still the windows xp home cd will not load on startup and i am given the same message "windows cannot star because the following file is missing or corrupt : /WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/CONFIG/SYSTEM "
Your timely help would be greatly appreciated.
The motherboard brand and model would be particularly helpful.
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_sys32.htm
Any problems, please post and do let us know how you get on
The "corrupt : /WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/CONFIG/SYSTEM"
Won't install off the friggin XP cd. Just reboots in a loop after loading drivers....
I can turn it off for 4 hours and come back. Hit the power an it boots fine. Runs for 3 or 4 days 24/7. Then I get some BSOD and when I boot I get that error also. can't load a fresh windows from the cd or anything. You can mess around trying crap forever and it won't boot into XP.
If I unplug the sorry POS and just walk away and 3 or 4 hours, I come back later I hit the power it boots normal. And will run PERFECT for 3 or 4 days.
Now WTF is happening here?
Memory is Corsair Twinmoss. Tests perfect with a memory tester for 24 hours. Only card in it is a ATI x600 pci-e video. Bios is at all defaults. I have tried boosting voltage for memory, cpu, chipset etc... doesnt help at all.
I have the latest drivers from nvidia and ATI all installed. One dvd burner and one WD 250gb drive with a 530w psu. Voltages look fine. The machine isnt being stressed. Its used to surf the internet and burn DVD's mostly right now.
Tex
I have been experiencing the same problem with the DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI-DR mobo on the machine I have just built. The problem seems to be that the registry hive .....\windows\system32\config\system is being corrupted due to an improper shutdown. I have not been able to trace the cause, but the following fix allows me to boot back into Windows XP. In my case this has worked every time and that must be at least twenty or thirty times now (I too am beginning to hate the DFI board)!
Boot from Windows XP Install CD
Press R for recovery console
Select the number for the OS (in my case 1. C:\WINDOWS)
This should result in a prompt C:\WINDOWS
At the prompt type "fixmbr" (no quotes)
A warning will display stating the mbr is not standard or corrupt (or words to that effect) do you wish to continue? Type "y" (no quotes)
the new mbr should then be successfully written to the hard disk.
Type "exit" (no quotes) at the prompt, the system will reboot and all SHOULD be well.
A word of warning care should be execised if you multiboot into different OS's as this may prevent the system accessing a custom boot loader, but for single operating systems it should be fine. As I said before it works 100% of the time for me.
I still have to find the cause of the improper shutdown, but will post back if I have any success.
Sounds like overheating, possibly the HD embedded card components-- is that part of HD dusty, so no flow can occur to the ICs on that embedded card???
That would explain why HD sometimes finds data (system part of registry hive set) and then sometimes goes wonky...... ESPECIALLY if this happens mostly during the summer months.
I'm having to keep room temps below 80 to run XP and Linux (multiple computers) reliably for very long periods here. And my HDs get cleaned also to get dust off them-- air can type or air blower (Datavac blower\vac, ESD safe).
Fainter but possible for some folks is a HD with not enough power getting to it (so it is not spinning up to normal speed) because other components are grabbing too much from a marginally too small PSU, or overheating because damaged or not big enough PSU.
Its a clear acylic case with zero dust. Side panel is off right now.
Temps (I live in the mountains) is never above 65 degrees in this room. The cpu is hitting low 40's. It runs 24/7 for days........... then I get a BSOD. Changes every time about exactly what its bitching about.
Then it won't boot. Says the file is corrupt.... Won't run the XP install. memtest will run perfect for 24 hours though.
Walk away for 3 or 4 hours and the SOB will boot up perfect. You know this is sort of a pain when its a work PC.
But if the file was actually corrupt then walking away wouldn't magically fix it.
I used to keep a small wooden stake, a cross and a real silver bullet in my brief case for fixing problems of this type.
I actually had an employee supply me with the silver bullet as a gift.
When your fighting problems of th "zombie/undead" is type they are invaluable tools.
Why do I think that a friggin new ASUS motherboard would end my nightmares? I hate this DFI board
Tex
Hey,
I'm aslo having the same problem on an older DFI board (AK74-EC) about 5 years old. I have 2 of these machines, and they've always been a bit ordinary, although in general have been much more useful under XP. Even so, this problem seems to be a NEW one. Both my boards had 750 MHz Duron until the weekend, when one was replaced with a 950 MHz Athlon. I did this as I suspected a faulty processor. Anyway, all was fine for about 4 days ..... then the crash (again!!!) and '/windows/system32/config/system missing or corrupt' message. Doesn't matter how long I leave it .... it doesn't repair itself! Managed to recover by booting on another drive, copying the 'repair' system file .... AND installing SP2 again, as some programs were screwy!
As only one of the machines is playing up it would seem to be something at the motherboard level causing the problem .... BUT WHAT!!! Having read your discussions I'm most suspicious of localised overheating of the processor ... maybe due to a poor quality socket or inadequate fan .... but don't really have a clue! If you come across any other likely causes I'd like to know!!!
Thanks,
Greg
Alll I'd say is that it COULD be the RAM. I've been reluctant to turn on my troublesome machine lately, as the other is working fine. At the moment, I know the problem machine is running with relatively new RAM, and I have been suspicious ... but I also know I have swapped RAM between the machines recently as well! The machine is so basic, RAM and processor were the only options. In my case, I'm still most suspicious of bad connections, either to the processor, RAM or drives.
When faced with a similar problem a while ago, I even resorted to spraying the CPU pins with CRC. I expected a disaster, but to my surprise that problem seemed to disappear. I wouldn't recommend trying this unless your quite prepared to invest in a new machine if necessary!!!! When you're talking 750MHz Duron, you don't have much to lose!!!!!
Greg
I found all my problems were caused by a particularly picky memory controller on my AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 'Winchester Core' and/or the ABIT AN8 motherboard. Now I have removed the second 512MB memory module, which was part of an OCZ matched pair, I have no further problems.
This saga with the Winchester core CPU started off life when it was in my other rig, which has a Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI motherboard. With 2x Corsair CMX512-3200C2 DDR400 modules bought as a TWINX1024-3200C2 kit the thing would not POST in dual channel mode. I tested the memory (memtest86 and windiag) no problems. So off I went and bought a matched pair of 2x Crucial Ballistix PC3200 512MB DDR400 memory modules and replaced the Corsair. Still no POST in dual channel mode. Tested the RAM, no problems. Fuming I then ordered an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 'Venice Core' and all my problems went away and I have 2GB of double sided RAM occupying all four slots at DDR 400!
I returned the AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 'Winchester Core' to AMD for replacement under warranty and the replacement is now I believe causing the problems in the ABIT rig. I realise that the ABIT board will only run at DDR333 with all four slots occupied, but I can't even populate two without severe memory corruption problems.
Having got hold of WinDBG, a Microsoft crash dump debugger I can now see that all my problems which Microsoft Error reporting variously described as a a bad device driver or a bad graphics driver, were in fact memory corruption problems. The only solution seems to me to be upgrade to at least a 'venice core', but as this is my test machine I'll carry on with 512MB of ram and total stability in the short term!
Regards,
Clivro
Well reading this thread motivated me to look at the problem again! Although I had tried all sorts of memory timings with the Gigabyte board it did no good because the previous CPU memory controller was defective.
However, I had left all the DRAM timings at auto on the ABIT board so I thought I'd give it a try!
Hallelujah, with 2x 512MB memory module kit OCZ4001024v3DC-K memory timings set at: -
CAS 3
(did have some problems at 2.5; screen freeze, and dreaded windows\sytem32\config\system missing or corrupt message so relaxed it to 3)
TRCD 4
TRP 4
TRAS 8
Command Rate 2T
It all seems really stable now with the 1GB dual channel memory configuration. I'm going to give it a hammering and will report any problems if they occur.
I hope this info might help somebody!
clivro
Thanks,
Bernie
I hate to ask but... You probably need to backup your stuff right?
PM or email me. Are you running XP home or XP pro now?
Tex
Why not just get XP home?
Tex
Your doing a fresh install and will start from scratch.
Tex
Sorry to pull up this old post. I was referred to this site for help. I'm having a similar problem. Apparently, it does not see my old install. Can you walk me throught that repair? I'd be VERY grateful, lol.
Try running chkdsk on the root partitioin as it's probably corrupted and needs cleaned.
Boot from the XP cd. Go to recovery conmsole which is a command prompt. run chkdsk on the boot partition.
Tex
I am having the same problem as the daughter in the original post. I have a Dell and I use Windows XP Pro. I have tried a few suggested methods like chkdisk and fixboot, but they have not worked. I tried following your instructions to get to the repair by...
Booting from the Windows XP Pro Reinstallation disk that came with my computer.
Then I get options to set up XP, go to the Recovery console and to quit. I hit enter to go to the setup.
I agreed to the license agreement. Then it gives me three options: Setup XP on a selected item, create partion and delete partition. Do I select C and choose setup?
Thanks!
-Opicana
I resolved my repeatedly occurring problem
windows could not start because the following file is mising or corrupt:
\windows\sytem32\config\system
by enabling BIOS settings which had been previously disabled .... I assume for a good reason! To be honest I can't even identify which setting fixed the problem, as I turned on several as a desperate last attempt before scrapping the machine. I know they included BIOS shadowing and HD SMART settings .... but there were others. If anyone is interested I'll note the current BIOS settings. Since adjusting the BIOS the machine hasn't missed a beat. Prior to this it would run for varying lengths of time (up to 24 hours or so) and then crash with the warning above. I must have re-installed XP half a dozen times or more!! Machine has now been running fine for a few weeks.
Hope this is of use to someone.