Missing system files

[ddavis]

A friend cannot boot winXP. She uses the wall outlet to turn her PC o
and off. I told her to try to boot in safe made. The nessage say
missing system files i386 and C20127.NLS. Then she can't do anything
Is there a way to copy these files from another PC and load them unin
USB flash or floppy? In safe mode? which would be the best way to d
this. She doesn't have win XP disk, and she didn't get restoe disk whe
she bought PC. It is about 3 1/2 years old. Any help woul be wonderful

 

[Malke]

A friend cannot boot winXP. She uses the wall outlet to turn her PC on
and off. I told her to try to boot in safe made. The nessage says
missing system files i386 and C20127.NLS. Then she can't do anything.
Is there a way to copy these files from another PC and load them uning
USB flash or floppy? In safe mode? which would be the best way to do
this. She doesn't have win XP disk, and she didn't get restoe disk
when she bought PC. It is about 3 1/2 years old. Any help woul be
wonderful.

Are you saying that instead of using Start>Shutdown your friend has
simply been pulling the power cord out of the wall outlet? No wonder
she can't boot any more.

Tell her she's now damaged the operating system by this stupid behavior.
It was the equivalent of repeatedly slamming her car into a wall in
order to stop it instead of using the brakes.

She will need to try a Repair Install and, if that doesn't work,
clean-install Windows. She'll need an XP install disk for either
procedure. Since she doesn't have one, she'll need to purchase the
operating system she would like to use (or download a free Linux distro
and install it). The only alternative to this is for her to take the
machine to a local professional computer repair shop. If your friend
has an OEM machine with the Product Key sticker on the side, the local
pro can fix Windows and use that Product Key. If she doesn't even have
the Product Key, then she's out of luck.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm - Repair Install
How-To
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows -
What you will need on-hand

After the problem is resolved, your friend should change her computing
habits or she'll be back in the same boat again very quickly. Oh, and
pulling the power cord on a Linux system is just as destructive (if not
more so) than doing so on a Windows system so installing Linux without
changing the bad shutdown habit won't help, either.

Malke

 

[Guest]

Using a wall switch? You know what Forrest Gump said about
Stupidity? I wonder if she does the samething with her TV set???
--
XP - WNP
Today is the first day of the
rest of your life.
If you find this response helpful,
rate it below.

 

[NewScience]

If she has a friend that has a Windows XP CD, she could borrow that and come
up in Recovery mode.
REPEAT ... Recovery mode.

Then she could run chkdsk /r on her system drive (usually c and check if
there are problems.

Make sure you get the EXACT error message:

missing system files i386

What is the exact error? i386 is a folder. Does it say missing system
files IN i386?
Some of these errors may disappear if the system is fixed by chkdsk.

I would try that first.