Corrupt file is missing or corrupt??? after attempted boot

[Roger L]

Hi to all,

Yesterday I received the following alert something to the effect
"filing is missing or corrupt Win\system32\config\syst" You can
attempt to repair using setup CDrom. I cannot understand why this
happened, as computer was working perfectly an hour before. Could it
be the anti spyware program?

Problem was I could not access "C:" prompt to repair and was forced to
reload from start and I was thankfully guided by the good folks at
Dell.

Norton Antivirus now shows wrong expiry date. I went to their site
and was instructed to keep acessing live update. Still expiry date
not corrected.

Has anybody else had the same problem and what did you do?

Thanks.

Roger

 

[dev]

Roger L said:

Hi to all,

Yesterday I received the following alert something to the effect
"filing is missing or corrupt Win\system32\config\syst" You can
attempt to repair using setup CDrom. I cannot understand why this
happened, as computer was working perfectly an hour before. Could it
be the anti spyware program?

Problem was I could not access "C:" prompt to repair and was forced to
reload from start and I was thankfully guided by the good folks at
Dell.

Norton Antivirus now shows wrong expiry date. I went to their site
and was instructed to keep acessing live update. Still expiry date
not corrected.

Has anybody else had the same problem and what did you do?

If the error was ...Win\system32\config\system, it's not uncommon.


Try a boot into Safe Mode, by hitting F8 just before the "Starting
Windows" screen would appear (takes a bit of practice).
Choose LAST GOOD.

If that does nothing, use a working PC to read this first...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q823614
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_sys32.htm

Related info is here...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q307545
describes a three-step process to extract a copy of the registry
from the System Restore SVI folder.

Info on dealing with corruption issues...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822705

Reinstall/repair tutorials (if needed) are here...
http://WWW.WEBTREE.CA/windowsxp/
http://michaelstevenstech.com

After your system is restored, the ERUNT utility available here may
make it easier to fix the problem if it recurs...
http://HOME.T-ONLINE.DE/home/lars.hederer/erunt

If the problem persists, try swapping current RAM (even if it checks
good) for a single, high-quality 512Mb chip. XP reportedly is sensitive
to memory timing.