Not Such A good XMass eve for me so FAR!!
Hello And thanks for helping.
My PC was acting funny for 2 days. I shutdown all programs and restarted. When the comp tried to start I got the famous
windows xp could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \windows\system32\config\system
I have looked at a ton of threads here on the site and found nothing that works. below is what I have tried..
OLD POST FROM TEX
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.
when I tried this, I got the above format which asked me to creat or delet a partition, which I have no idea what that means.
I then tried this option below
At the recovery console type chkdsk /p (note the space between the "k" and "/p"
) and hit enter.2 After it completes, restart the computer. This could have fixed your problem but if not, then proceed to Option 3.However, this of course did not work, that would be to easy with my luck! haha.
I then tried this
Here are some notes before we continue. What you are about to do is basically a minor System Restore via the Recovery Console. I say minor because you're only going to copy part of the registry, not the whole thing. Since you are copying over a registry backup to be used you may loose some program(s) or their settings, it all depends on when the last Restore Point for System Restore was created. If some programs don't work it's really as simple as reinstalling them.
The text in red will be what you type and the blue text will what the system outputs or what is put there by the system. READY, SET, GO.
C:\Windows>CD C:\system~1\_resto~1
C:\system~1\_resto~1\>dir
After you enter the DIR command and hit enter you will get a list of folders like such rp1, rp2, rp3, rp4, etc. etc. The "rp" part of the folder name denoting it's a Restore Point
What you'll want to do is find the 2nd highest numbered folder in that list. So, for instance, if it listed rp1 thru rp24 you'll want the rp23 folder. I'll use rp23 for the rest of this little fix just to keep things simple but substitute rp23 for whatever folder is the 2nd highest in the list on your pc.
Now, we have more commands..
C:\system~1\_resto~1>cd rp23
C:\system~1\_resto~1\rp23>cd snapshot
C:\system~1\_resto~1\rp23\snapshot>copy _registry_machine_system c:\windows\system32\config\system (read below3)
Overwrite system [y,n]: y
1 file copied
C:\system~1\_resto~1\rp23\snapshot>exit (before typing exit, please remove your Windows XP CD from the CD Drive)
however, on the 3rd to last step (C:\system~1\_resto~1\rp23\snapshot>copy _registry_machine_system c:\windows\system32\config\system) I get a message that says invalid command. so basically nothing is working and I hate windows like a red headed step child. can any please help!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am dying here, worried about losing files and fixing my computer with all my work information on. Anything could help. i am pretty new at all this so basic instructions would really help!
Thanks
chad
0
Comments
""This is a really common problem. It's almost always caused by a virus or spyware. You can follow the instructions from microsoft at:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545
Be sure that you follow them exactly and update your virus scanner and run a full scan after you are done. Let me know if this works for you.""
so basically nothing is working and I hate windows like a red headed step child.
You have a few choices ---- I'm writing this post on Dual G4 PowerMac I picked up for $500 and running OS X 10.4 (pretty secure) -- I also have a dual boot on my PC with Ubuntu (very secure) --- on the newer versions of Ubuntu you can actually use the file manager to just click on your Windows partition and copy and move your files (music - pics - Office files) and drag them into the Linux partition ......
Good luck;)
Just want to know on the last step where you copy, if you added a space between the copy and the _registry....because that does matter. Also I don't know if this has been tried by you, but if you use the 3rd or 4th lowest pr# from the last rp# that will also work, but you will loose much more settings and/or programs, but not data files such as word documents.
Another thing you can try is after you load the windows xp disk and select repair, you can type a command that compares the disks version of the essential windows files and the windows files on your machine and if any are missing or corrupt then they will be re-written by the ones on the cd. But since your luck is so bad, it made me forget the command, but you can search for it on the net. (I found it on some other forum...but I can't remember anything else about it, other than it fixed my problem) I hope you get this problem fixed.