It may not be a good idea to reformat
the harddrive that came with your pc.
Some installation disks are "upgrade"
versions, meaning that if your oem is
a WinXP upgrade, your original harddrive
likely has some files pertaining to an older
windows.
Unlike retail "full" versions of Windows,
Windows upgrades require some evidence
that there is a previous version in your
possession. During the installation, WinXP setup will
either look for it on the hd or ask you for the
setup disks of the older windows like
win 95, win 98, win me, etc.
For me, it is my win 95 that allows me
to upgrade windows. But for sentimental
reasons I still have win 3.1 as well.
I am glad you have been doing some
research. However, please keep in mind
that Microsoft is the authority on its
o.s. I went back and found some useful
knowledge base articles that describe
similar issues you are having at this time.
I hope you can take a look at them, do
some of the steps Microsoft suggests and
hope that you will get your o.s. back
up and running.
Afterwards, we should look into discovering
the cause of your registry crash. Sometimes
a crash like yours happens when the o.s.
is writing data to the registry file and
the power goes out.
I / we will be keeping a look out
for your additional postings if you
have some questions or want to
provide us with a status.....
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058
- db
I think some shutdown issues caused the corruption. I tried the recovery console with no luck. After looking online, I found out that OEM versions could not be repaired. I couldn't load with last known good configuration either. Still, can I install that drive as a slave, and if so, after recovering my data files, I would like to reformat it and use it as a true slave drive.
Jim
"db" <databaseben.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message i don't think that you
are out of options
for one thing, you have a backup
registry already reserved/preserved
for you on the disk. This is one
of the advantages built into windows
by microsoft.
further you should also have
the option to repair your o.s. in addition
to replacing the o.s. or replacing the physical harddrive.
i suppose one of the questions that remain
is "what caused the lost of registry to begin with"
- db
I just received the nice news that my registry is corrupt and that Windows
can't start. After some research, I see that with the OEM copy I have, I
have no other choice than to reformat.
My question..the drive itself is fine, it's Windows that has a problem. Can
I install a new hard drive, install Windows on that, then install the
original drive as a slave so that I can retrieve my files. I know, should
have backed up more often.
Will that work, and are there any special procedures other than setting the
jumper to slave and restarting Windows so that it will recognize the new
drive?
Thanks!
Jim