Windows 2000 Pro file corruption

[Load \*\,8,1]

Well folks, this one is a bit complex. Wondering if anyone can assist.

I was given an AMD K6-2 300Mhz Desktop with Windows 2000 Pro installed to
get it back up and running.

The error that appears as Windows 2000 loads up is:

The following file is missing or corrupt

\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

I did google for answers and did find some. The only problem I have is that
all the answers require the W2K install disk, which I don't have. I'm
wondering if there is a work around to not having the W2K install disk. I'm
about to give the PC back, letting them know that I could not repair it due
to not having the W2K install disk.

Thanks,

 

[Chris Hill]

Well folks, this one is a bit complex. Wondering if anyone can assist.

I was given an AMD K6-2 300Mhz Desktop with Windows 2000 Pro installed to
get it back up and running.

The error that appears as Windows 2000 loads up is:

The following file is missing or corrupt

\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

I did google for answers and did find some. The only problem I have is that
all the answers require the W2K install disk, which I don't have. I'm
wondering if there is a work around to not having the W2K install disk. I'm
about to give the PC back, letting them know that I could not repair it due
to not having the W2K install disk.

Thanks,

They should have a disk. If they don't, maybe they'll be more careful
next time not to lose it or to at least copy it when they steal it.

 

[Grinder]

Well folks, this one is a bit complex. Wondering if anyone can assist.

I was given an AMD K6-2 300Mhz Desktop with Windows 2000 Pro installed to
get it back up and running.

The error that appears as Windows 2000 loads up is:

The following file is missing or corrupt

\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

I did google for answers and did find some. The only problem I have is that
all the answers require the W2K install disk, which I don't have. I'm
wondering if there is a work around to not having the W2K install disk. I'm
about to give the PC back, letting them know that I could not repair it due
to not having the W2K install disk.

That file is part of the registry. There is a knowledge base article
that addresses what you should do, but it has evaporated for the
microsoft site. Here is an abstract:

| Using System.alt to Recover the System Hive
| Microsoft Knowledge Base Article: 151247 - If your system
| fails to boot because the System hive is corrupt, it may
| be possible to rename the System.alt file to System to
| recover Windows NT. This file is located in the
| Systemroot\System32\Config directory. It is recommend to
| first try to use the Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) to
| recover the System hive. Information on using the ERD can
| be found on page 49 in the Installation Guide. Renaming
| the System.alt file should only be used as a last resort
| after you have tried to recover the system using the ERD.
| If the Windows NT system files are located on a Windows
| NT File System (NTFS) partition you will need to boot
| into another installation of Windows NT to rename the
| file. If the Windows NT files are located on a FAT
| partition you can boot from a bootable MS-DOS diskette to
| rename the file.

 

[David Maynard]

Well folks, this one is a bit complex. Wondering if anyone can assist.

I was given an AMD K6-2 300Mhz Desktop with Windows 2000 Pro installed to
get it back up and running.

The error that appears as Windows 2000 loads up is:

The following file is missing or corrupt

\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

I did google for answers and did find some. The only problem I have is that
all the answers require the W2K install disk, which I don't have. I'm
wondering if there is a work around to not having the W2K install disk. I'm
about to give the PC back, letting them know that I could not repair it due
to not having the W2K install disk.

Well, you have to be able to work on the hard drive so how do you plan to
do it with no CD? Put it in another computer?

At any rate, Windows 2000 should have a system.alt file in the
\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\ directory so try renaming the SYSTEM file to
system.old and copy system.alt to SYSTEM (making a new SYSTEM that's a copy
of system.alt)

If that doesn't work you'll need to restore the repair copy in
\WINNT\repair. If the registry had ever been backed up that's the version
that'll be in there otherwise it'll be the original hive created when the
system was first installed and you'd have to reinstall any device drivers
and device services added later.

 

[kony]

Well folks, this one is a bit complex. Wondering if anyone can assist.

I was given an AMD K6-2 300Mhz Desktop with Windows 2000 Pro installed to
get it back up and running.

The error that appears as Windows 2000 loads up is:

The following file is missing or corrupt

\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

I did google for answers and did find some. The only problem I have is that
all the answers require the W2K install disk, which I don't have. I'm
wondering if there is a work around to not having the W2K install disk. I'm
about to give the PC back, letting them know that I could not repair it due
to not having the W2K install disk.

Thanks,

First thing to do is run the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics
on the drive, after contacting the owner to determine if any
of the files might need salvaged (should there be a failing
drive, then copying them off before any further access of
the drive).

If you want to complete the repair, why not just have them
bring in the Win2k disc?

Did you check the drive? Often much (if not all) of the
win2k installation files are on it. Otherwise do as the
prior posts suggest, try restoring the alternate system
(registry) files.

 

[Bob]

I have been having something similar to that happen to me for a while
now. Usually Win2K schedules CHKDSK and after a repair the disk is
usable again. Every once in a while the disk BSODs and I have to
remount it as D: in order to fix it.

I traced the problem to an anti-virus product from Computer
Associates. Once I uninstalled it and replaced it with Avast (free),
the number of instances has dropped dramatically.

However it has not gone away. So there is still something crapping up
my NTFS volume. I would reinstall Win2K but that's a lot of work and I
may just wait for Vista to come out.


--

"Our country's a place of limitless hopes and
possibilities, and nowhere is that spirit more
alive than in the great nation of Texas."
--GW Bush, U.S. President from Texas

"One thing that makes George Bush such a great
president is that he does not govern according
to public opinion polls."
--John Cornyn, U.S. Senator from Texas

 

[Load \*\,8,1]

Thank You everyone, good information that I will use to get this system back
up.

Thank You,

 

[kony]

I have been having something similar to that happen to me for a while
now.

Your situation is not necessarily similar. This may not be
file corruption in general but rather one specific (or
several) registry corruptions... with it merely being
coincidence that the registry is comprised of (few) files.

 

[Bob]

Your situation is not necessarily similar. This may not be
file corruption in general but rather one specific (or
several) registry corruptions... with it merely being
coincidence that the registry is comprised of (few) files.

It's really pathetic that we are forced to speculate about what is
going wrong when a simple diagnostic message would clear things up or
at least provide a substantive clue.

Everytime I am amazed Windows even runs I am reminded that it really
doesn't. It just twitches between crashes.


--

"Our country's a place of limitless hopes and
possibilities, and nowhere is that spirit more
alive than in the great nation of Texas."
--GW Bush, U.S. President from Texas

"One thing that makes George Bush such a great
president is that he does not govern according
to public opinion polls."
--John Cornyn, U.S. Senator from Texas

 

[Grinder]

I would reinstall Win2K but that's a lot of work and I
may just wait for Vista to come out.

Please take it as constructive criticism when I say that this
indicates you do not have a good backup system in place.

In addition to regularily archiving your documents/data, you
should also keep up to date installers for your OS and any
applications you require. If that's done, there's really
no reason why you can't wipe and reinstall your system in
a couple of hours time.

 

[kony]

It's really pathetic that we are forced to speculate about what is
going wrong when a simple diagnostic message would clear things up or
at least provide a substantive clue.

Everytime I am amazed Windows even runs I am reminded that it really
doesn't. It just twitches between crashes.

LOL.

yeah sometimes we have a great void when it comes to
supplied information. Makes one want to put something in
their sig like "whatever you wrote, do it again and include
all the details this time". <- That not directed at the
OP in particular, just a generalization.

 

[kony]

I have been having something similar to that happen to me for a while
now. Usually Win2K schedules CHKDSK and after a repair the disk is
usable again. Every once in a while the disk BSODs and I have to
remount it as D: in order to fix it.

I traced the problem to an anti-virus product from Computer
Associates. Once I uninstalled it and replaced it with Avast (free),
the number of instances has dropped dramatically.

However it has not gone away. So there is still something crapping up
my NTFS volume. I would reinstall Win2K but that's a lot of work and I
may just wait for Vista to come out.

.... and being a beta-tester is good?
Maybe, maybe not. For all we know you could have the same
problem on Vista plus all the ones everyone else will have
too. I'll put Vista on a system as a toy but no way I'd
rely on it till a service pack or two has been released.

 

[Bob]

Please take it as constructive criticism when I say that this
indicates you do not have a good backup system in place.

You misunderstood me. In the comment above I am referring to the
practice of starting over with a fresh install of the operating
system. I have tried the Upgrade Rebuild and it does not cure the
problem.

In addition to regularily archiving your documents/data, you
should also keep up to date installers for your OS and any
applications you require. If that's done, there's really
no reason why you can't wipe and reinstall your system in
a couple of hours time.

Your comments are so humorous in my case. Here's my archive backup
system which I have been using for nearly a year:

1) I have two removable drive bays.

2) I have three identical hard disks which I rotate thru the boot
drive bay.

3) I make a clone using True Image and move the disks up one in the
archive.

4) I do that at least once a week, and more often when I am going to
do installations of new applications.

5) Each morning I run NTBackup in differential mode with the backup
file on the second drive. That way if I have to reach back one level
of disk in the 3-disk archive I can at least retrieve data like email
files, etc.

So why don't I do that when the disk becomes contaminated? The reason
is simple - by running CHKDSK on the D: drive I recover everything.
It's a lot faster than cloning and restoring the backup.



--

"To achieve One World Government it is necessary to remove
from the minds of men their individualism their loyalty to
family traditions and national identification."
--Brock Chisholm, Director of UN WHO

 

[Bob]

... and being a beta-tester is good?

I was talking about the official release, and even then I would wait
intil a stable build, usually after the first service pack.

no way I'd rely on it till a service pack or two has been released.

Indeed.

Remember I have removable drive bays which means I can have two
operating systems available. In reality I would add a third bay and
put each OS in one of them with the third being my scratch disk
(backup data). I would use the BIOS to flip between boot disks.

I have tried to keep a log of all the things I have done since the
initial install of NT4 back in 1996 (I did a Win2K upgrade on top of
NT4) but it became impossible to maintain. Therefore I would have to
flip back and forth between systems to figure out what I needed to do
to create the new one.

Fortunately you can copy the User profiles to the new OS, which saves
a bunch of time. But other than that you really need to do a fresh
install on a bare OS, especially a bare Registry, to get a fresh
start.

But this is academic for now since Vista is still in test and won't be
available for a long time.


--

"To achieve One World Government it is necessary to remove
from the minds of men their individualism their loyalty to
family traditions and national identification."
--Brock Chisholm, Director of UN WHO

 

[WinXP_Powered]

There's nothing in the Registry that requires a proprietary binary
database format. Long before Windows and even today, the internet has
run on UNIX-based servers using nothing more than plain text files that
contain all the system configuration info and settings.

So why the Registry? Cause Windows is a commercial product, NOT open
source, which makes the Registry part of their intellectual property
(excuse me for laughing here). The keepers of the code have 1 main goal
in mind: producing software that makes them money... because that's
their business--producing software.

My .02 cents worth.

----------------

 

[Steven L Umbach]

If you can boot into an alternate operating system either via the hard drive
[dual boot/ parallel install] or Bart's PE from the CD or put the hard drive
in another computer you could try renaming system file and copy the system
file from the \winnt\repair folder to \winnt\system32\config to see if that
helps. --- Steve

 

[J. Clarke]

There's nothing in the Registry that requires a proprietary binary
database format. Long before Windows and even today, the internet has
run on UNIX-based servers using nothing more than plain text files that
contain all the system configuration info and settings.

So why the Registry? Cause Windows is a commercial product, NOT open
source, which makes the Registry part of their intellectual property
(excuse me for laughing here). The keepers of the code have 1 main goal
in mind: producing software that makes them money... because that's
their business--producing software.

The registry had a specific purpose, to simplify network administration.
The objective was to separate hardware-specific, application-specific, and
user-specific configuration items to make it easy for a user to login on
any machine on a network and have the same desktop, etc. This was very
difficult with Windows 3.x and earlier and was one of the major potential
benefits of 9x and later. Of course the application designers refused to
play by the rules and so it didn't work out that way, but it's getting
there slowly.

My .02 cents worth.

There is a reason for the Microsoft proprieatary format and that reason is
security. If you've never investigated registry security you'll find that
access is controllable down to the key level, with privilege assignable by
user and by group and with a variety of privileges assignable, not just
read and write. This is not something easily done with a text file.

 

[Grinder]

You misunderstood me. In the comment above I am referring to the
practice of starting over with a fresh install of the operating
system. I have tried the Upgrade Rebuild and it does not cure the
problem.

No, I understood you when you said you did not want to start over with a
fresh install of the operating system.

Your comments are so humorous in my case. Here's my archive backup
system which I have been using for nearly a year:

1) I have two removable drive bays.

2) I have three identical hard disks which I rotate thru the boot
drive bay.

3) I make a clone using True Image and move the disks up one in the
archive.

4) I do that at least once a week, and more often when I am going to
do installations of new applications.

5) Each morning I run NTBackup in differential mode with the backup
file on the second drive. That way if I have to reach back one level
of disk in the 3-disk archive I can at least retrieve data like email
files, etc.

So why don't I do that when the disk becomes contaminated? The reason
is simple - by running CHKDSK on the D: drive I recover everything.
It's a lot faster than cloning and restoring the backup.

I was under the impression that the reason you would not make a fresh
install was because "it was a lot of work." Apparently you see no
benefit to a fresh install, nor would expect it to be much work -- only
time. That makes my remarks, and those of yours that inspired mine,
irrelevant.

I hope that you find a solution to your periodic disk corruption.

 

[kony]

I was talking about the official release,

So am I.

 

[Bob]

I was under the impression that the reason you would not make a fresh
install was because "it was a lot of work." Apparently you see no
benefit to a fresh install, nor would expect it to be much work -- only
time. That makes my remarks, and those of yours that inspired mine,
irrelevant.

I still did not make myself clear. What I meant to say is that I do
not want to do a fresh install of an old operating system. I want to
wait for Vista so I can do a fresh install on a new operating systerm.
At most I would import profiles, but the applications I would
reinstall in order to get a fresh Registry.

I hope that you find a solution to your periodic disk corruption.

I likely will not because I believe it is something deeply embedded in
the system. This install has gone far beyond its lifetime so the fact
that it acts up is not surprising.

I suspect part of the problem is that current applications are being
compiled for XP, to the detriment of Win2K. That's MS's sneaky way to
get users to upgrade. I have seen several applications not run in
Win2K but run in XP (my son runs XP so I have a reference).

As long as CHKDSK fixes things, I am not going to waste a lot of time
on it.


--

"To achieve One World Government it is necessary to remove
from the minds of men their individualism their loyalty to
family traditions and national identification."
--Brock Chisholm, Director of UN WHO