I just went in search of a picture I used to use as my desktop picture and found a LOT of pictures were missing. Thankfully I have them on a portable HD device, but is there a reason that they are missing off the corupted HD? And a way to get them back?
Apologies if this is in the wrong place. I've spent quite a while reading this vast thread and hope someone here can help me.
I have a Dell Dimension PC. There must have been a virus or something in some software I've downloaded as it my PC now refuses to boot up and I get the windows\system32\config\system missing error message.
I found a fix for it that involved using the repair CD to copy files from the config folder to a temp directory, which I followed, having read but presumably misunderstood the warnings.
It didn't quite work, not all of the files would copy, but I seemed to be making some headway, and it was late so I shut down planning to start again today.
I then discovered that, as I apparently have an OEM installation of XP, my PC now asks me for an administrator password. There's never been a password on this PC so I don't know what it is.
I cannot undo the 'half-fix' I've done and cannot boot Windows.
I cannot repair Windows - the repair CD never gives me this option.
So at the moment it looks like the only option is to reinstall Windows and lose all my data (which I will, always, always, back up from now on!) but there are some things I don't fancy losing.
You could do what I did and buy a new hard drive, install it, install XP on it, and use your current drive as a slave. At least you won't lose all your info.
You could do what I did and buy a new hard drive, install it, install XP on it, and use your current drive as a slave. At least you won't lose all your info.
Thanks. I'll try this.
I'm guessing it's only possible with a new internal hard drive, not a USB external one - am I right?
I would guess so. I have an ATSA drive that is hooked up to a card on my mother board and I tried to installe XP on it, and even that wouldn't work. I had to get a replacement like the one I had.
I ordered from Tiger Direct, they have pretty good prices and FAST shipping. I live in a very small town, the only place to get computer components is Staples and they had ONE but when I went back to get it, it was gone, so I had to order mine. Tiger Direct shipping takes about 2 business days for their ground (cheapest) shipping.
Hi i running into the same problems i am running asus sli delux motherboard and duel 250gig hard drives linked with raid 0 and duel geforce 7000 seires. I'm gettign the same message windows\system32\config\system missing or corrputed. the windows xp cd does not boot up even thoght i changed in bios the boot order to my cd drive as first. is it possible that i might have a faultly cd or the scratchs on it have anythign to do with it not functioning correctly. if so is there a way i can fix thsi problem without having to go buy a new window xp pro os. and is there a way i can boot it in safe mode then i can maually system restore. i appreicate any help that you can give me.
Safe mode is not likely- have you tried? (press a couple of times F8 after the POST beep and just before OS boot).
However, go back into BIOS and see if the system even sees your CD or DVD drive. Also, the CD won't boot until you tell it to and the message to do so is only a few seconds- have you done that?
i get the same error message but when i run setup from my xp disk and it star loading files i get another error that says:
a problem has been detected and windows has been shutdown to prevent damage to your computer.
if this is the first time you have seen this stop error screen restart your computer.if this screen appears again follow this steps.
so i can never get to the screen to press the r to repair the error.
this is a hp dv 5040 pavillion no floppy drive so i can not even go for console repair it ask for flopy disk.so what can i do?
... when i run setup from my xp disk and it star loading files i get another error that says:
a problem has been detected and windows has been shutdown to prevent damage to your computer.
if this is the first time you have seen this stop error screen restart your computer.if this screen appears again follow this steps.
This is part of a blue screen message- can you give us the error code that goes with this?
EDIT ADDED: In any case, please download and run Memtest- this sounds like a possible memory failure.
You could do what I did and buy a new hard drive, install it, install XP on it, and use your current drive as a slave. At least you won't lose all your info.
I'm trying to do this but I've run into another problem. I've installed a new hard disk, installed XP on it and slaved the old hard disk (with all my stuff on it) to the new one.
I've copied a lot of files across to the new disk, but the folder My Documents is 'not accessible'.
If I click on it, or try to copy it or try to look inside using Explorer, I get an error message saying 'E:\Documents and Settings\myname\My Documents is not accessible. Access is denied.' No explanation of why that should be.
It won't allow me to change the properties of the folder either.
And, of course, all the files that I want to keep are in that folder.
It is wise to have a back-up plan and always include your My Documets folder. A spare, good sized USB thumb-drive is a great short-term backup device for critical data.
I'm not sure if this has been answered already but my laptop crashed with that message last night.
I have a toshiba latop that I bought in 2004 with XP already installed. i have to double check because the software is in another location, but I think that it only came with a system restore CD which would wipe everything from the hard drive and return it to its original factory settings. Its not something I really want to do since I've installed Office 2003 and have some files i don't want to lose.
Would I be able to run the recovery console if I purchased XP even though its not the software that originally was used to install XP on the laptop? (I'm not sure if that makes any sense whatsoever why I couldn't)
I'm not sure if this has been answered already but my laptop crashed with that message last night.
I have a toshiba latop that I bought in 2004 with XP already installed. i have to double check because the software is in another location, but I think that it only came with a system restore CD which would wipe everything from the hard drive and return it to its original factory settings. Its not something I really want to do since I've installed Office 2003 and have some files i don't want to lose.
Would I be able to run the recovery console if I purchased XP even though its not the software that originally was used to install XP on the laptop? (I'm not sure if that makes any sense whatsoever why I couldn't)
Thanks in advance.
Have you run Memtest yet? Make sure your memory is OK first. Might want to run an HD diag as well.
Laptop Recovery CD(s - there're usually more than one) have XP and generally lots of crapware and custom drivers that usually must be installed.
BEFORE you try messing with the OS and if there are valuable files you are desperate for, you should try to get a USB enclosure for your laptop hard drive or an interface card that will allow you to copy off your critical data.
Whether you can do a zero-format install of XP on your laptop is a crap-shoot- I've done it- but not every retailer's laptop will do so. You could ask Toshiba or find a Toshiba forum. However, yes, you have a much better probability of sucess doing a Recovery or Repair install from a regular XP CD. I've also done an upgrade from XP Home to Pro (on a Toshiba even) with no problem using a retail version- that's a possibility. The upgrade versions will also allow you to repair or recover your OS.
Otherwise- the recommendation is: It's back to ground zero.
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
hello tex,
can you help me out? I have tried a ton of things and nothing works. I am getting the partitans page or what ever that word is... haha, and I know in another post you said DO NOT DO ANYTHING if that is showing up. Any thing would help
It is now fully working thanks to "erd commander 2005" no wonder Mr Gates wanted it so bad!!
heres how: once loaded from boot open my computer, browse to C:, windows System Volume Information, navigate to the folder whose name begins with _restore This folder contains many subfolders which have names of the form RPxxx, where xxx is a number indicating the restore point. Locate an RPxxx folder which has the highest number as its suffix (highest xxx)Now, there will be a folder named snapshot. Navigate to this folder, There should be a files named _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM,Default,Sam,Security & software, right click and copy each of the them to C:\Windows\System32\Config, changing the name of each to just system, default, sam, security & software
and reboot the system
hope this helps, (took me a couple of days to find relevant info, so much for HP support and their F10 tapping!, they can F10 off)
I have my computer set up with a raid using a motherboard controller although the C:\ drive is part of the same raid controller it is not part of the raid array. Because of this I was unable to see the c:\ drive with the XP disk or ERD Commander.
So I purchased a USB SATA Hard Drive enclosure and connected the drive to my laptop and booted up from the CD to load ERD.
As soon as ERD recognised the disk a message came up saying that there was a problem which it had fixed. Putting the hard drive back into my computer resulted in an immeadiate boot up and normal operation.
Note that while I was at it I had a look at the method which Pipe has recommended however although I was able to see the relevant files and backups, and copy the backups, I was unable to manipulate files in the C:\Windows\System32\Config area i.e. delete, copy or rename.
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!
Thanks to everyone for their input on this forum. After sorting through it and trying numerous ways to fix my problem, I'm still stuck. I am getting this same error. I've used the restore, but when I try to enter some of the commands, I get either "The file could not be copied" or "Access is denied."
I also can't start in safe mode with command prompt (I just get the same error).
Hi all, Google seems to suggest this forum as the number 1 solver to this problem! :-) so I came
Reading through a large number of posts I decided to click to last.
I have the exact same problem (I was trying to reinstall xp but it got stuck) but I cant seem to access my 'cmd' as when I hit '1' it just restarts the computer (to try some of the information given on these forums.)
Amd Athlon 2800+, 3gigddr ram, 128mb 5200fx, Windows Home XP no service pack.
None of the F8 settings work,
Please help anyone, as when I repair (the 2nd one) it cant locate previous installed versions and asks me to format (harddrive is still there, 30GB free of 80),
My situation is very specific, so in short, I have done alot of reading on the forum, and know about all of the things I need to do. The issue is that I can't even get to apply those solutions because my CD Rom drive on my laptop is not responding anymore - it died in the middle of my recovery, and now files are missing - I seem trapped.
So, besides the fact that I probably need to get my CD Rom drive replaced, fixed or get a new laptop, here is my situation in more detail.
I was in the middle of a system restore (I have no need to save anything on the laptop, so a full restore is ok), and I received an error (I can't remeber what it is, but essentially unable to complete the recovery - after having gotten most of the way through) and basically kept rebooting itself into the same error:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\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
Note: I cannot even get to the 'first screen' to even hit 'r'. it always comes back to this screen.
This causes me the following issue besides the obvious:
I cannot access anything from the safe mode screen (any of the options on that screen). If I try to select safe mode, for example, it craps out with trying to access this file above, which makes sense.
So, my options have been to enter my windows CD and from my BIOS, change to boot from CD, then recover. Or I can try this from creating 6 boot floppies, but since my home PC has no floppy drive....
Again, my CD drive does not read discs, and it crapped out in the middle of my initial recovery.
So, what are my options?
One that I thought of was if I could somehow boot from a 2Gig thumb drive I own, but, I do not see an option to boot from USB in my BIOS.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I would love to just get this laptop up and going. I don't even need to use the cd drive for anything (but this), so if I can just get windows XP re-installed, I am good to go.
My other questions is that if I can somehow get boot floppies or a USB boot to work, is there anyway that I can perform my recovery of XP using my usb thumb drive (since I cannot read from cd roms)? I also have an much larger external usb harddrive if that helps...but again, from my BIOS, I don't see an uption to boot from USB.
I appreciate any help / direction I can get. If you need more info, please let me know.
OK - Read on another forum that if you go to reinstall XP, you get another repair menu come up to repair the version you already have installed - only problem is when I get to the menu where you can select drives and partitions and such, i have NO DRIVE AVAILABLE, so even trying to reinstall is not an option. Did a diagnostic check on the HD and everything came out great.........what the hell??
Its my first post...I am fairly good with basic stuff and I followed these intructions but stuck at a point where it asks me for a number after I select the "r" once I set my factory Dell inspiron 9100 to boot from CD. I recall reading that type "r" "r" "r"(no quotes ofcourse) in sequence as commands once in repair area but after the first "r" I am prompt for a number instead of an "r" so what am I doing wrong?
My computer is an eMachines T6420. I just recently install a new video card 8600GT and a 1G RAM stick from Kingston. Everything worked fine.... But now I got the same problem as the threat starter too but the bad thing is eMachines didn't give me the Window XP CD but its own recovery CD (restore CD for God Sake).
At first, I used that CD and I had only 2 choices, do a destructive restore or a back up restore. I chose the destructive meaning everything got wiped out of my system and the manufactur-shipped files will be re-install. Well, it started up. Then I turn off the computer, turned it back on the next day, the same thing happen again.
Now I dont know what to do. Anyone have any opinions how I could do fix this problem???
Ok I don't get the option to repair it does know where the other OS is but no option to repair instead I am asked to pick a partition to install XP at...What I do wrong or what can I do?
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!
Comments
Apologies if this is in the wrong place. I've spent quite a while reading this vast thread and hope someone here can help me.
I have a Dell Dimension PC. There must have been a virus or something in some software I've downloaded as it my PC now refuses to boot up and I get the windows\system32\config\system missing error message.
I found a fix for it that involved using the repair CD to copy files from the config folder to a temp directory, which I followed, having read but presumably misunderstood the warnings.
It didn't quite work, not all of the files would copy, but I seemed to be making some headway, and it was late so I shut down planning to start again today.
I then discovered that, as I apparently have an OEM installation of XP, my PC now asks me for an administrator password. There's never been a password on this PC so I don't know what it is.
I cannot undo the 'half-fix' I've done and cannot boot Windows.
I cannot repair Windows - the repair CD never gives me this option.
So at the moment it looks like the only option is to reinstall Windows and lose all my data (which I will, always, always, back up from now on!) but there are some things I don't fancy losing.
Is there any way out of this mess?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks. I'll try this.
I'm guessing it's only possible with a new internal hard drive, not a USB external one - am I right?
Thanks.
I ordered from Tiger Direct, they have pretty good prices and FAST shipping. I live in a very small town, the only place to get computer components is Staples and they had ONE but when I went back to get it, it was gone, so I had to order mine. Tiger Direct shipping takes about 2 business days for their ground (cheapest) shipping.
thx dante
However, go back into BIOS and see if the system even sees your CD or DVD drive. Also, the CD won't boot until you tell it to and the message to do so is only a few seconds- have you done that?
a problem has been detected and windows has been shutdown to prevent damage to your computer.
if this is the first time you have seen this stop error screen restart your computer.if this screen appears again follow this steps.
so i can never get to the screen to press the r to repair the error.
this is a hp dv 5040 pavillion no floppy drive so i can not even go for console repair it ask for flopy disk.so what can i do?
This is part of a blue screen message- can you give us the error code that goes with this?
EDIT ADDED: In any case, please download and run Memtest- this sounds like a possible memory failure.
And welcome to Icrontic
o Bad or discharged battery- try another if you can first. If it's discharged, you might have a faulty charger or cord.
o Master shutoff button is stuck.
You might also try your laptop's tech support- especially if it is still under warranty.
Hope this helps
I'm trying to do this but I've run into another problem. I've installed a new hard disk, installed XP on it and slaved the old hard disk (with all my stuff on it) to the new one.
I've copied a lot of files across to the new disk, but the folder My Documents is 'not accessible'.
If I click on it, or try to copy it or try to look inside using Explorer, I get an error message saying 'E:\Documents and Settings\myname\My Documents is not accessible. Access is denied.' No explanation of why that should be.
It won't allow me to change the properties of the folder either.
And, of course, all the files that I want to keep are in that folder.
Grateful if anyone can help.
It is wise to have a back-up plan and always include your My Documets folder. A spare, good sized USB thumb-drive is a great short-term backup device for critical data.
I have a toshiba latop that I bought in 2004 with XP already installed. i have to double check because the software is in another location, but I think that it only came with a system restore CD which would wipe everything from the hard drive and return it to its original factory settings. Its not something I really want to do since I've installed Office 2003 and have some files i don't want to lose.
Would I be able to run the recovery console if I purchased XP even though its not the software that originally was used to install XP on the laptop? (I'm not sure if that makes any sense whatsoever why I couldn't)
Thanks in advance.
Before you do, be sure that "boot form disk" is first in boot order in the BIOS
Where do get a boot disk, i dont knw though.
Have you run Memtest yet? Make sure your memory is OK first. Might want to run an HD diag as well.
Laptop Recovery CD(s - there're usually more than one) have XP and generally lots of crapware and custom drivers that usually must be installed.
BEFORE you try messing with the OS and if there are valuable files you are desperate for, you should try to get a USB enclosure for your laptop hard drive or an interface card that will allow you to copy off your critical data.
Whether you can do a zero-format install of XP on your laptop is a crap-shoot- I've done it- but not every retailer's laptop will do so. You could ask Toshiba or find a Toshiba forum. However, yes, you have a much better probability of sucess doing a Recovery or Repair install from a regular XP CD. I've also done an upgrade from XP Home to Pro (on a Toshiba even) with no problem using a retail version- that's a possibility. The upgrade versions will also allow you to repair or recover your OS.
Otherwise- the recommendation is: It's back to ground zero.
hello tex,
can you help me out? I have tried a ton of things and nothing works. I am getting the partitans page or what ever that word is... haha, and I know in another post you said DO NOT DO ANYTHING if that is showing up. Any thing would help
http://icrontic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68439
I was ready to lift the hammer and make small pieces of my pc!!
It is now fully working thanks to "erd commander 2005" no wonder Mr Gates wanted it so bad!!
heres how:
once loaded from boot open my computer, browse to C:, windows System Volume Information, navigate to the folder whose name begins with _restore This folder contains many subfolders which have names of the form RPxxx, where xxx is a number indicating the restore point. Locate an RPxxx folder which has the highest number as its suffix (highest xxx)Now, there will be a folder named snapshot. Navigate to this folder, There should be a files named
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM,Default,Sam,Security & software, right click and copy each of the them to C:\Windows\System32\Config, changing the name of each to just system, default, sam, security & software
and reboot the system
hope this helps, (took me a couple of days to find relevant info, so much for HP support and their F10 tapping!, they can F10 off)
I have my computer set up with a raid using a motherboard controller although the C:\ drive is part of the same raid controller it is not part of the raid array. Because of this I was unable to see the c:\ drive with the XP disk or ERD Commander.
So I purchased a USB SATA Hard Drive enclosure and connected the drive to my laptop and booted up from the CD to load ERD.
As soon as ERD recognised the disk a message came up saying that there was a problem which it had fixed. Putting the hard drive back into my computer resulted in an immeadiate boot up and normal operation.
Note that while I was at it I had a look at the method which Pipe has recommended however although I was able to see the relevant files and backups, and copy the backups, I was unable to manipulate files in the C:\Windows\System32\Config area i.e. delete, copy or rename.
So another thumbs up for ERD Commander
That is my problem - big time. I have tried spinrite and fixmbr and nothing works. Where to now?
bobflfl
I also can't start in safe mode with command prompt (I just get the same error).
Any ideas?
Reading through a large number of posts I decided to click to last.
I have the exact same problem (I was trying to reinstall xp but it got stuck) but I cant seem to access my 'cmd' as when I hit '1' it just restarts the computer (to try some of the information given on these forums.)
Amd Athlon 2800+, 3gigddr ram, 128mb 5200fx, Windows Home XP no service pack.
None of the F8 settings work,
Please help anyone, as when I repair (the 2nd one) it cant locate previous installed versions and asks me to format (harddrive is still there, 30GB free of 80),
Please help anyone?
ace
So, besides the fact that I probably need to get my CD Rom drive replaced, fixed or get a new laptop, here is my situation in more detail.
I was in the middle of a system restore (I have no need to save anything on the laptop, so a full restore is ok), and I received an error (I can't remeber what it is, but essentially unable to complete the recovery - after having gotten most of the way through) and basically kept rebooting itself into the same error:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\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
Note: I cannot even get to the 'first screen' to even hit 'r'. it always comes back to this screen.
This causes me the following issue besides the obvious:
I cannot access anything from the safe mode screen (any of the options on that screen). If I try to select safe mode, for example, it craps out with trying to access this file above, which makes sense.
So, my options have been to enter my windows CD and from my BIOS, change to boot from CD, then recover. Or I can try this from creating 6 boot floppies, but since my home PC has no floppy drive....
Again, my CD drive does not read discs, and it crapped out in the middle of my initial recovery.
So, what are my options?
One that I thought of was if I could somehow boot from a 2Gig thumb drive I own, but, I do not see an option to boot from USB in my BIOS.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I would love to just get this laptop up and going. I don't even need to use the cd drive for anything (but this), so if I can just get windows XP re-installed, I am good to go.
My other questions is that if I can somehow get boot floppies or a USB boot to work, is there anyway that I can perform my recovery of XP using my usb thumb drive (since I cannot read from cd roms)? I also have an much larger external usb harddrive if that helps...but again, from my BIOS, I don't see an uption to boot from USB.
I appreciate any help / direction I can get. If you need more info, please let me know.
CHeers!
Thank you for your link, my parents got this error this morning and I sent them an email with the fix, hopefully it will get fixed.
Its my first post...I am fairly good with basic stuff and I followed these intructions but stuck at a point where it asks me for a number after I select the "r" once I set my factory Dell inspiron 9100 to boot from CD. I recall reading that type "r" "r" "r"(no quotes ofcourse) in sequence as commands once in repair area but after the first "r" I am prompt for a number instead of an "r" so what am I doing wrong?
Its a Dell Inspiron 9100
512 mem
1.24 ghz
XP Pro
At first, I used that CD and I had only 2 choices, do a destructive restore or a back up restore. I chose the destructive meaning everything got wiped out of my system and the manufactur-shipped files will be re-install. Well, it started up. Then I turn off the computer, turned it back on the next day, the same thing happen again.
Now I dont know what to do. Anyone have any opinions how I could do fix this problem???