Corrupt registry? CONFIG\SYSTEM missing or corrupt

G

Guest

I may have messed up my home PC and wondered if any of you had any thoughts.
I see that there have been others with this problem, but solutions I have
found don't seem to work.

Last night, I decided to sit down and fix a problem I had been investigating
for some time. On shutdown, we were getting a program called
WindowsFormsParkingWindow (WFPW) that was taking forever to shutdown. On
investigation, I discovered that this WFPW, while maily used by programmers,
can also be put onto machines by HP printer/scan products, which we have
both. To fix, I went into msconfig utility under the Startup tab. There you
can see the list of startup files. They can be checked and unchecked. I
unchecked the file associated with WFPW (hph something08) and then looked at
other files in the startup to see if they too should be unchecked. I used the
database sysinfo.org website to see what the files pertained to. There's a
guide there that tells you if the file is necessary, up to the user, not
necessary or definitely not something you want in startup. I unchecked a
couple of other startup items (like things that were loading to the startup
tray that were accessible in other ways). i got to one that was named simply
"1" and had a file name of "1" (without .exe or any extension.) I think I
mistakenly interpreted this as a result of a worm (from the database on
sysinfo.org).

From that site I was taken to Symantec's site that said this file could be
in startup as a result of a worm and was one that saved keystrokes and sent
them out. Though at this time, I'm not entirely sure if this "1" file was
related to the worm (since there was no .exe after it) Symantec suggested the
following which was probably a mistake for me to do:

Turn off System Restore for all disks. (This removed all restore points - I
did hesitate before doing this, but did do it.)
Download new virus def files
Scan all disks.

No viruses were found in the scan which took over an hour.

They then suggested looking at regedit to see if the 1.exe file was in
there. I looked, did not find it and cancelled without making any changes to
regedit because I know that's dangerous if your not a very advanced user.
(I'm good, nut not a pro)

I rebooted the machine and it booted just fine, and faster than before. A
utility came up, something like Configuration Utiltity, that said because I
was effectively not loading all the items in the startup (because I had
unchecked them) this was going to come up each time I started the machine. It
gave an option to not have this utility come up when the machine starts up,
but I did not check it. I figured it was safer to leave it on until I was
sure.

I successfully rebooted the machine three or four times, each time with the
unnecessary startup items unchecked. The last time I got a message that told
me that "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or
corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM." It told me that to fix it I could
boot from the Windows XP startup disc and press 'r' to go into the recovery
console.

I was able to do this and get to the C:\> prompt in the recovery console. I
researched the problem using another machine and each user forum I found
pointed to the steps listed in Microsoft's knowledge base at
support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545#appliesto.webloc. (These are the same
steps as at Kelly's Korner) When I got to the part that has you start typing
commands at the C:\ prompt (such as the first one 'md tmp') I get a message
that says "Access is denied". Most of the instructions had pointed to an
Administrator password prompt appearing when I entered the Recovery console,
but I was never prompted for that.

If I type 'dir' at the C: prompt, it says "An error occurred during
directory enumeration".

We ran chkdsk \p and when it got to 34% it stopped and gave a message "The
volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems."

One of the forums I found had someone who said he was able to run "fixmbr"
in the Recovery Console and that fixed his problem. I looked this up on
Microsoft and it said "If an invalid or nonstandard partition table signature
is detected, you will be prompted whether you want to continue. If you are
not having problems accessing your drives, you should not continue. Writing a
new master boot record to your system partition could damage your partition
tables and cause your partitions to become inaccessible." I am hesitant to do
this, because I don't want to lose what I have on the hard drive.

This all started because I was trying to clean up the computer after getting
a new DVD burner and new secondary hard drive. I thought if I removed that
program that was causing shutdown to hang up, all would be well. Needless to
say, I haven't finished cleaning up the computer and have no backups to C: -
I was going to start making them today.

Some suggestions have been to do a parallel install. i wonder if I could do
this to my secondary hard drive and be able to back up and recover my files
before doing a reinstall of windows on the original drive.

Does this sound familiar to you or have I ruined my drive? <sigh>

Any advice you can provide would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob
Hercules CA
 
G

Guest

yuo should run "chkdsk /r" not "chkdsk /p". no qoutes

"P" swithch does not repair errors.

type: chdsk /? for available switches
 
G

Guest

I get the same response. At 34% chkdsk /r says The volume appears to contain
one or more uncoverable problems.
 
G

Guest

I started recovery console on one of my computers. At least for the commands
referenced in KB 307545, they assume you are in \Windows directory.
They work in my windows directory but not "C" root directory. I don't know
why.
"dir" worked in "C" and "windows" directory.


Your chkdsk errors indicate some hard ware issues obviously.
At this time, it doesn't make any sense to continue with KB article.

I would do as you stated that is install XP on secondary drive. Use the new
install to read and recover data from problem drive.

then proceed to diagnose and repair problem HDD. Go to mfg website and
download diagnostic software.

Once repaired or replaced, or trashed, you will need to decide what you want
to do next.
 
R

Richard Urban

When using the recovery/repair console, chkdsk C: /p **IS** chkdsk C: /r

Microsoft just decided to do it differently OR the right hand didn't know
what the left hand was doing when the code was written (nothing new here).
(-:

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
G

Guest

According to the help menu.

Chkdsk /p only forces chkdsk to read even if clean
chkdsk /r repairs and /p is implied

from help and support center

chkdsk
Creates and displays a status report for the disk. The chkdsk command also
lists and corrects errors on the disk.

The chkdsk command with the parameters listed below is only available when
you are using the Recovery Console. The chkdsk command with different
parameters is available from the command prompt.

chkdsk [drive:] [/p] [/r]

Parameters

none

Used without parameters, chkdsk displays the status of the disk in the
current drive.

drive:

Specifies the drive that you want chkdsk to check.

/p

Performs an exhaustive check even if the drive is not marked for chkdsk to
run. This parameter does not make any changes to the drive.

/r

Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information. Implies /p.

Note

The chkdsk command requires the file Autochk.exe. If it cannot find it in
the startup directory (\%systemroot%\System32, by default), it will attempt
to locate it on the Windows Installation CD. If you have a multiboot
computer, be sure you are issuing this command from the drive containing
Windows.
 
R

Richard Urban

Sorry. Was in a hurry. Chkdsk c: /p = chkdsk c: /f

Again, sorry!

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
G

Guest

we all makes mistakes. to error is human. something like that.
and no one knows everything. we all learn from others for our whole life.

No problem!!
 

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