I ran the defragger last wk. and I must have scheduled a scan disk. My
computer keeps freezing at stage 5. It will eventually run through stage 5
at 100%. Then, it asks me if I want to run Windows normally, in safe mode,
or in safe mode w/ command prompt. Finally what comes up is - Stop:
C0000218 Registry File Failure
Registry cannot load the hive. (file): \systemroot\system32\config\software
Or its log or its alternate. It is corrupt, absent or not writeable. Then,
it says - Beginning dump of physical memory. Dumping physical memory to
disk. It says to contact the administrator or manufacturer.

I tried to use the recovery console, but did not know what to put in for my
pw. And it said if, you do not have experience, you should not do this.
Have I totally fried my hard drive? Should I just get a new computer?

"Desperate in Pgh" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message news:A609BEDA-12A6-4D64-8038-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I ran the defragger last wk. and I must have scheduled a scan disk. My
> computer keeps freezing at stage 5. It will eventually run through stage
> 5
> at 100%. Then, it asks me if I want to run Windows normally, in safe
> mode,
> or in safe mode w/ command prompt. Finally what comes up is - Stop:
> C0000218 Registry File Failure
> Registry cannot load the hive. (file):
> \systemroot\system32\config\software
> Or its log or its alternate. It is corrupt, absent or not writeable.
> Then,
> it says - Beginning dump of physical memory. Dumping physical memory to
> disk. It says to contact the administrator or manufacturer.
>
> I tried to use the recovery console, but did not know what to put in for
> my
> pw. And it said if, you do not have experience, you should not do this.
> Have I totally fried my hard drive? Should I just get a new computer?

Hi,
Try this link:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;307545 - this
describes exactly what you need to do. As far as the administrator password
is concerned (when entering the Recovery console), chances are you did not
specify one, so just hit enter when it asks for the password.
Regards,
Steve.

SteveM, I did follow the link you gave me. I was able to get windows xp up
and running again. However, I only had to do all the steps in step 1. My
machine came back up and everything was there. My vpn client worked. I was
able to use my other programs.
Here is my question - if I don't complete all the parts 1-3 as described in
the article, am I really going to screw something up? Also, when I gained
access to the system volume info. I could only find one folder in there that
was a restore point, but it was fr. last night. It says in the documentation
not to use that one, so I did not proceed with the rest of the steps b/c I
was afraid I would blow away what I already had. That is when I tried my vpn
and other apps. and they worked. I know I probably sound stupid, but I am
not good at doing computer maintenance.

"stevem" wrote:

>
> "Desperate in Pgh" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> message news:A609BEDA-12A6-4D64-8038-(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I ran the defragger last wk. and I must have scheduled a scan disk. My
> > computer keeps freezing at stage 5. It will eventually run through stage
> > 5
> > at 100%. Then, it asks me if I want to run Windows normally, in safe
> > mode,
> > or in safe mode w/ command prompt. Finally what comes up is - Stop:
> > C0000218 Registry File Failure
> > Registry cannot load the hive. (file):
> > \systemroot\system32\config\software
> > Or its log or its alternate. It is corrupt, absent or not writeable.
> > Then,
> > it says - Beginning dump of physical memory. Dumping physical memory to
> > disk. It says to contact the administrator or manufacturer.
> >
> > I tried to use the recovery console, but did not know what to put in for
> > my
> > pw. And it said if, you do not have experience, you should not do this.
> > Have I totally fried my hard drive? Should I just get a new computer?
>
> Hi,
> Try this link:
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;307545 - this
> describes exactly what you need to do. As far as the administrator password
> is concerned (when entering the Recovery console), chances are you did not
> specify one, so just hit enter when it asks for the password.
> Regards,
> Steve.
>
>
>

"Desperate in Pgh" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message news:61A4F24F-F1F3-4EA7-B9E3-(E-Mail Removed)...
> SteveM, I did follow the link you gave me. I was able to get windows xp
> up
> and running again. However, I only had to do all the steps in step 1. My
> machine came back up and everything was there. My vpn client worked. I
> was
> able to use my other programs.
> Here is my question - if I don't complete all the parts 1-3 as described
> in
> the article, am I really going to screw something up? Also, when I gained
> access to the system volume info. I could only find one folder in there
> that
> was a restore point, but it was fr. last night. It says in the
> documentation
> not to use that one, so I did not proceed with the rest of the steps b/c I
> was afraid I would blow away what I already had. That is when I tried my
> vpn
> and other apps. and they worked. I know I probably sound stupid, but I am
> not good at doing computer maintenance.
>

Hi,
If everything is now working, then you don't need to do any more. The
contents of the Repair folder are essentially a snapshot of the registry as
it was when you first installed XP. From what you say, it seems your
installation must be quite recent, so effectively, you have not added
anything to the registry since installation. Therefore, the original copy is
just fine. As far as the contents of System Volume Information go, you will
indeed see only one restore folder; however, if you open that, you should
see a whole succession of folders called RPnnnn, all with different dates.
Choosing a recent one of these, should show a folder called Snapshot, and
it's inside this folder that you will find the registry hives created by
that particular Restore Point. As I said originally, if everything seems to
be working fine, then you may well be OK with this set-up; however, I would
have a look at what Restore Points you actually have, and if there are a
lot, I would tend to choose a later one and complete the process, otherwise
you may well find that some of your applications, for instance, have lost
whatever specific customisation settings you may have made.
But glad to hear you're up and running again; just shows that however
desperate the situation seems, these groups may well have the answer!
Regards,
Steve.