Damn PC`s
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Damn PC`s
I have a friend (that sounds like a cliche if ever I heard one) who`s XP Home system has just suffered a really nasty crash, cause unknown, possibly a graphics driver. Anyway every time we reboot the system we are getting the following message on a black screen and cannot get into Windows at all. We have tried booting in safe mode but still no luck. Here`s the message,
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt...
\Windows\System32\Config\System
You could attemp (attempt being the key word here ;) to repair the file by starting Windows setup using the original CD-Rom.
Select "r" at the first screen to start the repair process.
After doing this we are taken to the repair console but haven`t a clue what to do next. It says type "HELP" for a list of commands and I have tried FIXBOOT and CHECKDISK but with no luck. Could someone who has a little experience in these matters please point me in the right direction.
A complete reinstall is looking like the only option at the moment but there are a few files on the hard drive that have not been backed up.
Thanks for any help.
Jason.
It sounds like you are about to reinstall Windows to me...
Thanks ;)
Jason.
1.
use "xcopy" to backup something under dos, or use a WinPE bootCD to rescue files you want(especially in NTFS).
2.
use Ghost to dump a current image to another partition, extract when your install completed.
3.
delete the windows directory only, you can re-install a fresh windows to keep some essential files(in most case they are stored in Documents and Seeings)
QuickSilve,
Simply install a second copy of windows onto the PC and go from there.
You can do this from a DOS prompt - just do not format the drive.
I am sure there are better qualified people out there to explain how, but I have sucxcessully done this twice now and saved all the data (except the old Windows installation).
Of course it means re-installing all your applications and games and whatever again, but you start with a clean registry at least.
Good luck!
IPete2.
IPete2
Heh, Your registry is corrupt.
there are programs that enable you to perform a restore- restore it to when it was working and it will work,
I'm sorry this isnt all that helpful- I don't have the name of the program i used to hand. Commander XP or something-
When it runs it seems to open a similar UI to the windows desktop with a start menu and all, with various tools to perform rerstorations and stuff.
Hopefully someone will remember this program!
That file is vital so regretably a resintall is probably required. You can try resintalling from the CD and I think it has an option to install over the existing OS rather than a full install. Only thing with this is I would be paranoid about older files/drivers mixing with newer ones. To get the data off the old drive, you might be better of pluggin the drive into another PC as a slave or secondary drive and copying all the important stuff across. I do this all the time for clients (I fix a lot of PCs) but I don't actually remove the drive, I just put the duff PC's IDE cable onto the motherboard of a working PC and power up the duff PC first then the working PC. This avoids all the unscrewing lark but the PCs have to be pretty close together so it can be fiddly. Then once data is backed up, reinstall duff PC with a full format/install, then lash up the two PCs again and copy all the data across. Remember it may be worth backing up Documents and Settings\User Name which will contain my documents, desktop, favorites, application data (for outlook express emails and other stuff) etc. The real time consumer is not backing up the data but actually reinstall windows, all the drivers, the apps, the games (don't forget to backup game save folders too), antivirus etc, setting up the internet, networks and printers etc then patching all your apps games again oh and of course windows update too! good luck
Damn PC's? Who do they belong to?
maybe this'll help...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307545
In my experience, if Windows has suffered a crash this severe, any kind of repair operation will only result in a half-working system at best.
If your friend needs to pull any valuable files off (and you do want to pull c:\Documents and Settings because this is where most of IE and FireFox stored passwords and favourites are, as well as other things you generall take for granted) then get his HD plugged into your PC (boot off your Windows though, obvously) but make sure you've got 3 or 4 anti spyware utilities loaded *first*. Antivirus software I wont even mention because it should be common sense to have something really good loaded (Panda, NAV, McAfee).
Odds are, a virus or other nasty caused your friends PC to crash. XP is generally quite stable and doesn't usually screw up that badly without something doing it on purpose. Trying to combine old versions of NAV with certain hard disk management software has been known to do it, but that is a very rare thing indeed (and is documented within the software in question).
it can also be harddrive or memory failure, so if it continues after a restall you may have to try looking at those.
In my case I only discovered it was ram after replacing the mobo and CPU. Allthough I was well overdue an upgrade anyway :)
Am i the only one to see that it's a registry corruption?The file will be restored if you can get in and do a system restore....I'm sure there's a tool called CommanderXP or something- its a CD that boots your computer- and brings up the ability to perform a restore.
I rescued my laptop just last week with it from this exact message.
Well thanks a lot to everyone here, there`s been some great advice given and everything`s back to normal now. I did have to do a complete reinstall but everything got backed up beforehand so all`s well.
Before I go it would be good to know for future reference what the name of that program was that can restore Windows. I found one called VCOM Commander, is that it? I assume it`s not free? That one`s about $40.
Cheers,
Jason.
VCOM Commander Sounds like it! I'll have to confirm that later though. It's not free, but for the one off purchase, its great.
I had so much on my windows installation, literally days worth of work if i was to reinstall- That program allowed me to recover my registry after a system crash trashed the registry file. back up and running in 5 minutes.
[edit]
Post us a link and i'll confirm thats the one.