bootable floppy with RAID0 drivers?

[aclarke]

My machine went out on me last night with the "missing or corrupted"
file (windows\system32\config\system) error. I have invested quite a
bit of time trying to figure out what to do to fix this. I have managed
to get RAID drivers for my drive(s) and to the Windows Recovery
Console.

Right now, I believe that if I could have DOS (command line) access to
my "striped" drives, I could get the last restore point for the
registry and recover.

My question: I have a bootable floppy and the raid drivers on another
floppy. Is there a way for me to make a bootable floppy that will
access my RAID controller instead of trying to look for IDE drives?

My kingdom and firstborn to the first person who can give me foolproof
directions to achieve this...

Allan

 

[Guest]

Why not tap F8 at start up,select safe mode with cmd prompt.Or for recovery
console cmds read kb307545 or 314058

 

[aclarke]

This particular file is a system registry hive. This prevents "last
known good" and "safe mode" from working. Additionally the Windows
Recovery Console is restricted to accessing C:\Windows ONLY. You may
not look anywhere else on that drive. Guess what? The restore points
that contain recent copies of the registry are NOT accessible at this
point because they are not in the Windows folder.

This sick twisted situation is truely something to be admired.

 

[frodo]

the windows\repair folder will have a copy of the registry files, but they
are often VERY old. They were copied there by the original setup, and are
renewed whenever you do a System State Backup. It's possible you could
get a usable copy from there, and then once up and running do the system
restore.

 

[aclarke]

I just got off a discussion with a sys admin at my workplace. I was
under the impression that a bootable floppy that would also load the
SATA/RAID drivers would let me get DOS-level access to my C: drive.
Apparently this is not really the case because the C: drive is going to
be NTFS.

I'm considering going into the Windows\Repair folder per your
suggestion, and these files are extremely old. They date back to my
purchase of the machine from the manufacturer. A MS tech note cautions
people like me that have OEM-installed OS's that those registry copies
might have an admin password that gets reinstalled, so you'd lose
access via Windows Recovery Console.

I'm thinking I will take my chance. If it turns out that I lose admin
control (my machine has only one open account right now), I'm going to
drop an IDE drive in, put XP on it, try to restore the registry on my
SATA/RAID drives, then yank out the IDE.

I can't image why this type of process is so excruciatingly painful. MS
could do A LOT to make this type of thing take 30 minutes instead of
two weeks.

 

[GTS]

Command line use of system restore would probably not fix the problem. I
believe it requires an intact registry.
However command line access it might let you apply the procedure described
in "How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from
starting" http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545
Note that this cannot be used with OEM Windows installations.

Your best bet for command line access would probably be a BartPE boot CD.
There are plug ins to add RAID drivers. See http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ .
Search on RAID within the page for information and plug ins.

If all else fails, a repair reinstallation of XP will be necessary.

 

[aclarke]

Yep. My sys admin thinks I should put that IDE drive in. I'm actually
going to try www.ubcd4win.com, which is built upon BartPE. This would
be a far more flexible solution, in that I can use it in the future,
and I can fix a heck of a lot more problems being able to boot into XP
that understands my RAID drives.

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[GTS]

You're welcome. Good move on UBCD4Win.

 

[aclarke]

I am typing this from my recovered machine. ubcd4win saved nearly
everything. it took about an hour total to make the CD. not only is my
machine up now, but I have a way to fix any problems in the future.
ubcd4win <-- HIGHLY recommended