I have read through this entire thread and feel as though I am about to beat a dead horse!
SO...I too am getting the message and am trying to boot up from the XP CD. And yes, I have changed the boot order in BIOS. The problem I am having is that the CD is being accessed but only gets as far as the blue screen which says 'Windows Setup' and then the computer reboots yet again. So I am unable to access anything to be able to type in any kind of command. Any advice would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance!!!!!
Tried everything here and on other boards with no luck the hd was too messed up with I guess a power spike and power failure in the house.
I slaved the hd to my new computer and windows fixed most of the problems automatically. I then ran virus scan and transferred my files to the new computer. Put the hd back into the old computer and now got
system32\drivers\ntfs.sys missing. Did a system recovery and that restored the drivers. But windows had to set up from scratch, restore points were lost.
But all the old files were there and windows seems to be working ok.
This actually was rather easy windows xp media edition did all the work to get rid of the windows\system32\config\system missing problems.
Thanks for all the solutions. This is my first post here and hopefully my last Old Mike
heres what you need to do, i hope your familiar with DOS
start up the machine in recovery mode, with the XP cd in your machine boot fromt he CD and go into the recovery console by hitting 'R'
from there it dumps you to a command promt window, from the current location you need to go into the directory with all of your save points. So type in:
cd "C:\system volume information"
when you get into that directory type:
"CD _R*" this should take you into the dipository for your computers restore points. if you do a DIR /A:D command you can see them all sorted by date. you want to choose arestore point near the newest, but not the very last one, thats apparently corruped as you can tell from the awesome message you get when you try to start your machine.
go into one of the resotre points by typing CD RP(whatever number) under there is a folder called snapshot you need to go into, so CD snapshot, when you get into the snapshot folder you are in the directory where your computer backs up the registry files. it backs them up and then renames them, when you do a dir they are called:
since you only seem to have the system part corrupted thats all you need to recover, first rename the file to the appropriete name by typing
ren _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM SYSTEM
there is a space between _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM and SYSTEM, the file its sefl should just be called SYSTEM.
now then to copy it to the correct location, type in
copy SYSTEM C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\CONFIG
it will ask if you want to overwrite the file, say yes, cause that one is bad.
shut the machine down and give her a crank, theres a posibility it may not work the first time, you may have to restore from a diffrent restore point all together, or you may have to resotore more of the registry.
when you do get your machine up and running i suggest you make a BartPE disk so you can do this WAY easier, infact i made a plugin for BartPE that does this exact same thing with a flick of the wrist. http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48794
Hi, i'm new to this site and I would like some help with my computer. I have the same problem with "windows\system32\config\system missing". I have a Dell 3000 with Windows XP and I have tried everything from a memory test to Fdisk and I have tried to reinstall Windows Xp over 20 times and I still get the same message. I have also tried to repair it with the instructions on the Microsoft website and I get the same message. I don't need any information from my hard drive so I am willing to do a clean install and I can't.
Can I do a clean install with a dell re installation cd or do I need a full version XP cd. One thing that I noticed when I try to re-install windows XP is that when it reaches the 13th minute remaining the monitor glitches for a split second and the dos system appears and at the 3rd minute remaining the monitor glitches again but shows two dos windows minimized and then it disappears. I have also reset the bios and have put another hard drive into my dell and I get the same message. I even tried my hard drive into another working computer and I get the same message.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
HI....AS I AM NEW TO THIS...I HAVE A COMPUTER THAT WAS WORKING GREAT THEN......POW!!!
HERE IS WHAT I CAN SEE ALONG WITH THE BLACK BACKGROUND, ON ALL THREE PAGES.
1st PAGE: READS THE DELL SYMBOL ON THE START UP PAGE
2nd PAGE: FOR A SPLIT SECOND OF A SECOND, ON THE TOP OF THE PAGE IT READS..i think.. LOADING PBR FOR DESCRIPTOR 2 DONE...i think its so hard to see..too fast.
3rd PAGE: WINDOWS COULD NOT START BECAUSE OF THE FOLLOWING FILE IS MISSING OR CORRUPT:
\WINDOW\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
THEN UNDER THIS IT SAYS:
YOU CAN ATTEMPT TO REPAIR THIS FILE BY STARTING WINDOWS SETUP USING THE ORIGINAL SETUP CD-ROM. SELECT 'r ' AT THE FIRST SCREEN TO START REPAIRS....
I TRIED THIS ONLY 500 TIMES IN DIFFERENT ORDERS OR WAYS OR WHATEVER.. NO GO...
THE ONLY THINGS I CAN DO IS GET INTO THE F2 AND THE F12 AND THE F8 BUTTONS ... NOTHING ELSE WORKS....
THANK YOU FOR ANY AND ALL OF YOUR HELP... I AM STUCK..... I AM READY TO THROW THIS OUT THE WINDOW.... THIS COMP IS JUST OVER A YEAR... AND THEN THIS HAPPENS... EVERYTHING EXPIRES...THEN IT BRAKES ON YOU..
THANKS CHERYL:
this worked..... All that other stuff people said on this thread didn't work for me,but I did what they said on that page and I'm back in action....Thanks so much...I never would have been able to even try to do this on my own.
I'm new to the site and I just got the common "windows\system32\config\system missing" error suddenly. Now after reading through the posts I still seem to have an issue. My XP install is currently on a SATA drive whereas my other two drives are ATA. So when I boot from my XP cd and go to the recovery console, my SATA drive with XP does not show up. Therefore I can't search for my windows directory and replace the system file. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
...when I boot from my XP cd and go to the recovery console, my SATA drive with XP does not show up...
You'll need to do the F5 thing to add extra drivers. Have the floppy disk with the SATA drivers handy and watch the bottom of the screen as the cdrom boots up.
Hi there, i have tried this solution along with many others to no avail....
essentially it tells me
c:/windows/repair/system
THE SYSTEM CANNOT FIND THE FILE SPECIFIED
it seems the file doesnt even exist, any suggestons
as far as specs its a dell inspiron 1100 and my cpu knowledge is so-so
i'm also affected this heck erro windows\system32\config\system. i'm using windows xp home edition. i already tried all the given solutions on this thread but it didn't work on my computer.
please help me out on finding other solutions. i don't want to format my computer since there are already a lot of applications that seems i can't re-run if i do a fresh installation of windows xp.
This is my first post on the forum so I'm kinda excited :Rocker:
I consider myself a very tech savvy person, but there's an issue with a friend's laptop that' s making me have a hard time.
I already went through these 10 pages for the issue where the hive is damaged...
Most of them talk about inserting the windows xp cd, going to recovery console and then press R... my issue is that, the computer just gets stuck in the blue screen that says "Setup is starting windows..." and that´s it. Sometimes it´s the blue screen, sometimes is a black screen only.
I already tried a windows xp home cd, a windows xp pro and the same message is shown. It just won´t get pass that screen.
I also tried to boot using ERD commander - no effect, ERD returns a BSOD with a pcy.sys error sometimes, some others it´s a memory error code, I´ll write them down and let you know. I also tried bart´s PE and shows a BSOD too. I also tried hirens´boot cd, but since this is an NTFS disk, all disk check or explorer tools do not seem to work, except for the specially related to NTFS. I am able to see the contents of the hard disk once I do this, so disk is not dead. I have also used UBCD and several other bootable cd´s in an attempt to have access to c: and run CHKDSK from there. I remember I fixed a computer that way a long time ago.
This is an HP laptop and therefore it has no floppy, however I happened to have an old usb floppy that seems to be able to boot from, only thing I´m missing now is the floppies...
All this background is just to let you know what I have already tried, I don´t want to bore you to hell ajaja
So, what will it be your advice?
1) Run a memtest and don´t do anything until those results are in?
2) Try to boot using the floppy recovery cd package and the external usb floppy and follow the procedure to restore the registry hive? What worries me is if this step will provide me with the recovery console, from which I can either make a chkdsk or recover that backup registry.
3) Keep trying other windows cds?
well yea i get this message Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
that people have been talking about but the problem is i dont have the original disc. is there something i can do or is my computer totally screwed
so i'm getting the same message. i have tried 3 or 4 different techiniques including deleting, copying and reinstalling registry files. i found this forum today and tried several different things that i read about in this topic. i have xp media center with no windows disc. my recovery discs were stolen and i have tried using a professional edition recovery disc and that has failed every time. some help would be greatly appreciated.
Sure. boot from the XP cd. Can you do that? Or do you need more simple instructions that tell ya how to do that too? I'm not jacking with ya, just need to know how low to target the level of instructions. There is no need for me to go through and write down here a bunch of extra steps you may know how to do now.
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
I am also having "registry cannot load the hive (file) error and windows XP
cannot start up. I wish to repair it using the procedures you outline.
At setup after avoiding the recovery console, I was asked to choose the
partition for installation. After that I was told that I have an operation
system in the partition there already and was asked whether I wish to
install a second operation system in the same partition. There were
only 2 choices, either yes or choose another partition for Windows XP to
install. So what should I choose here?
Hello, I too am suffering from this infernal problem.
Ive read mostly everything so far but I am having trubles.
When i boot off the windows xp cd and go into "Microsoft Windows XP<TM> Recovery Console" i am not given the selection part of this message:
Microsoft Windows® Recovery Console
The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality.
Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.
1: C:\WINDOWS
Which Windows Installation would you like to log on to
(To cancel, press ENTER)?
After "Type EXIT to quit... the computer" it just gives me "C:\>" for the command prompt. Everything i've read requires me to have that turn to C:\WINDOWS.
Also with Tex suggestion on the first page I am not given the choice to run a repair after the initial screen.
Also i ran "chkdsk /p" and at the 50% mark it stoped and i recieved this message: "The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems."
Any help would be greatly appreciated. (My computer is still under warrenty with Best Buy so worst comes to worst i can just send it to them. The problem is is that i dont want to loose all my data. I have an external hardrive but have no idea how to backup everything this late in the game. I have no other PC in the house, only macs.)
attrib
batch
bootcfg
cd
chdir
chkdsk
cls
copy
del
delete
dir
disable
diskpart
enable
exit
expand
fixboot
fixmbr
format
help
listsvc
logon
map
md
mkdir
more
net
rd
ren
rename
rmdir
systemroot
type
Comments
SO...I too am getting the message and am trying to boot up from the XP CD. And yes, I have changed the boot order in BIOS. The problem I am having is that the CD is being accessed but only gets as far as the blue screen which says 'Windows Setup' and then the computer reboots yet again. So I am unable to access anything to be able to type in any kind of command. Any advice would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance!!!!!
I slaved the hd to my new computer and windows fixed most of the problems automatically. I then ran virus scan and transferred my files to the new computer. Put the hd back into the old computer and now got
system32\drivers\ntfs.sys missing. Did a system recovery and that restored the drivers. But windows had to set up from scratch, restore points were lost.
But all the old files were there and windows seems to be working ok.
This actually was rather easy windows xp media edition did all the work to get rid of the windows\system32\config\system missing problems.
Thanks for all the solutions. This is my first post here and hopefully my last Old Mike
start up the machine in recovery mode, with the XP cd in your machine boot fromt he CD and go into the recovery console by hitting 'R'
from there it dumps you to a command promt window, from the current location you need to go into the directory with all of your save points. So type in:
cd "C:\system volume information"
when you get into that directory type:
"CD _R*" this should take you into the dipository for your computers restore points. if you do a DIR /A:D command you can see them all sorted by date. you want to choose arestore point near the newest, but not the very last one, thats apparently corruped as you can tell from the awesome message you get when you try to start your machine.
go into one of the resotre points by typing CD RP(whatever number) under there is a folder called snapshot you need to go into, so CD snapshot, when you get into the snapshot folder you are in the directory where your computer backs up the registry files. it backs them up and then renames them, when you do a dir they are called:
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
since you only seem to have the system part corrupted thats all you need to recover, first rename the file to the appropriete name by typing
ren _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM SYSTEM
there is a space between _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM and SYSTEM, the file its sefl should just be called SYSTEM.
now then to copy it to the correct location, type in
copy SYSTEM C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\CONFIG
it will ask if you want to overwrite the file, say yes, cause that one is bad.
shut the machine down and give her a crank, theres a posibility it may not work the first time, you may have to restore from a diffrent restore point all together, or you may have to resotore more of the registry.
when you do get your machine up and running i suggest you make a BartPE disk so you can do this WAY easier, infact i made a plugin for BartPE that does this exact same thing with a flick of the wrist. http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48794
let me know if you run into troubles.
Regardless, it's at least nice to know what the problem is.
Can I do a clean install with a dell re installation cd or do I need a full version XP cd. One thing that I noticed when I try to re-install windows XP is that when it reaches the 13th minute remaining the monitor glitches for a split second and the dos system appears and at the 3rd minute remaining the monitor glitches again but shows two dos windows minimized and then it disappears. I have also reset the bios and have put another hard drive into my dell and I get the same message. I even tried my hard drive into another working computer and I get the same message.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
HERE IS WHAT I CAN SEE ALONG WITH THE BLACK BACKGROUND, ON ALL THREE PAGES.
1st PAGE: READS THE DELL SYMBOL ON THE START UP PAGE
2nd PAGE: FOR A SPLIT SECOND OF A SECOND, ON THE TOP OF THE PAGE IT READS..i think.. LOADING PBR FOR DESCRIPTOR 2 DONE...i think its so hard to see..too fast.
3rd PAGE: WINDOWS COULD NOT START BECAUSE OF THE FOLLOWING FILE IS MISSING OR CORRUPT:
\WINDOW\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
THEN UNDER THIS IT SAYS:
YOU CAN ATTEMPT TO REPAIR THIS FILE BY STARTING WINDOWS SETUP USING THE ORIGINAL SETUP CD-ROM. SELECT 'r ' AT THE FIRST SCREEN TO START REPAIRS....
I TRIED THIS ONLY 500 TIMES IN DIFFERENT ORDERS OR WAYS OR WHATEVER.. NO GO...
THE ONLY THINGS I CAN DO IS GET INTO THE F2 AND THE F12 AND THE F8 BUTTONS ... NOTHING ELSE WORKS....
THANK YOU FOR ANY AND ALL OF YOUR HELP... I AM STUCK..... I AM READY TO THROW THIS OUT THE WINDOW.... THIS COMP IS JUST OVER A YEAR... AND THEN THIS HAPPENS... EVERYTHING EXPIRES...THEN IT BRAKES ON YOU..
THANKS CHERYL:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_sys32.htm
this worked..... All that other stuff people said on this thread didn't work for me,but I did what they said on that page and I'm back in action....Thanks so much...I never would have been able to even try to do this on my own.
BNX
Hope it helps you all
Webecho
I'm new to the site and I just got the common "windows\system32\config\system missing" error suddenly. Now after reading through the posts I still seem to have an issue. My XP install is currently on a SATA drive whereas my other two drives are ATA. So when I boot from my XP cd and go to the recovery console, my SATA drive with XP does not show up. Therefore I can't search for my windows directory and replace the system file. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Of course I don't have a floppy drive so it's the biggest pain ever to get things working. Thank you for the info.
Hi there, i have tried this solution along with many others to no avail....
essentially it tells me
c:/windows/repair/system
THE SYSTEM CANNOT FIND THE FILE SPECIFIED
it seems the file doesnt even exist, any suggestons
as far as specs its a dell inspiron 1100 and my cpu knowledge is so-so
thanks in advance
paul
i'm also affected this heck erro windows\system32\config\system. i'm using windows xp home edition. i already tried all the given solutions on this thread but it didn't work on my computer.
please help me out on finding other solutions. i don't want to format my computer since there are already a lot of applications that seems i can't re-run if i do a fresh installation of windows xp.
thanks in advance.
dryjen007
This is my first post on the forum so I'm kinda excited :Rocker:
I consider myself a very tech savvy person, but there's an issue with a friend's laptop that' s making me have a hard time.
I already went through these 10 pages for the issue where the hive is damaged...
Most of them talk about inserting the windows xp cd, going to recovery console and then press R... my issue is that, the computer just gets stuck in the blue screen that says "Setup is starting windows..." and that´s it. Sometimes it´s the blue screen, sometimes is a black screen only.
I already tried a windows xp home cd, a windows xp pro and the same message is shown. It just won´t get pass that screen.
I also tried to boot using ERD commander - no effect, ERD returns a BSOD with a pcy.sys error sometimes, some others it´s a memory error code, I´ll write them down and let you know. I also tried bart´s PE and shows a BSOD too. I also tried hirens´boot cd, but since this is an NTFS disk, all disk check or explorer tools do not seem to work, except for the specially related to NTFS. I am able to see the contents of the hard disk once I do this, so disk is not dead. I have also used UBCD and several other bootable cd´s in an attempt to have access to c: and run CHKDSK from there. I remember I fixed a computer that way a long time ago.
This is an HP laptop and therefore it has no floppy, however I happened to have an old usb floppy that seems to be able to boot from, only thing I´m missing now is the floppies...
All this background is just to let you know what I have already tried, I don´t want to bore you to hell ajaja
So, what will it be your advice?
1) Run a memtest and don´t do anything until those results are in?
2) Try to boot using the floppy recovery cd package and the external usb floppy and follow the procedure to restore the registry hive? What worries me is if this step will provide me with the recovery console, from which I can either make a chkdsk or recover that backup registry.
3) Keep trying other windows cds?
Please let me know what would be the best choice
I do appreciate your assistance!
Have a wonderful day everyone!
DG
Keep an eye on the "Pass" column - it will indicate the number of completed rounds of the entire battery of tests.
Good luck, and welcome to Short Media.
Thanks a lot! i'll go ahead and do that. Any particular settings or timeframe that I should be running the test?
Bad news - memory seems to be dead.
Just went ahead and tried MEMTEST86 & DocMemory & GoldenMemory & all of them show FAIL whenever ram is tested...
I somewhat refuse to agree that memory is dead! this is a spanking new laptop!
How could 1024 mb of ram go wrong in a couple of months?
Is there another way to confirm everything is dead?
I think I'll tell my friend to go ahead and take advantage of the warranty.
What can I do to take his data off the disk without cracking it open & take the HD out, since that will certainly void the warranty?
Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks once more for all your support.
that people have been talking about but the problem is i dont have the original disc. is there something i can do or is my computer totally screwed
Thanks: Ian
I am also having "registry cannot load the hive (file) error and windows XP
cannot start up. I wish to repair it using the procedures you outline.
At setup after avoiding the recovery console, I was asked to choose the
partition for installation. After that I was told that I have an operation
system in the partition there already and was asked whether I wish to
install a second operation system in the same partition. There were
only 2 choices, either yes or choose another partition for Windows XP to
install. So what should I choose here?
Ive read mostly everything so far but I am having trubles.
When i boot off the windows xp cd and go into "Microsoft Windows XP<TM> Recovery Console" i am not given the selection part of this message:
The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality.
Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.
1: C:\WINDOWS
Which Windows Installation would you like to log on to
(To cancel, press ENTER)?
After "Type EXIT to quit... the computer" it just gives me "C:\>" for the command prompt. Everything i've read requires me to have that turn to C:\WINDOWS.
Also with Tex suggestion on the first page I am not given the choice to run a repair after the initial screen.
Also i ran "chkdsk /p" and at the 50% mark it stoped and i recieved this message: "The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems."
Any help would be greatly appreciated. (My computer is still under warrenty with Best Buy so worst comes to worst i can just send it to them. The problem is is that i dont want to loose all my data. I have an external hardrive but have no idea how to backup everything this late in the game. I have no other PC in the house, only macs.)
Thnx so much again :-D.
batch
bootcfg
cd
chdir
chkdsk
cls
copy
del
delete
dir
disable
diskpart
enable
exit
expand
fixboot
fixmbr
format
help
listsvc
logon
map
md
mkdir
more
net
rd
ren
rename
rmdir
systemroot
type
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058
This lists a description of what all the commands do.