Corrupt windows/system/32/configsys file

[Matthew P]

I have a corrupted or missing file as listed above. I tried to do a repair
from the XP install disk that came with the system. It removed my OS and
tried to do a reinstall and then was unable to load a couple of files. I disk
a dischk and found some bad sectors. I did a repair on them but I still just
a a door stop that looks like an HP Pavilion 3010US laptop. I had a pro last
week check the system over ant they found no virus or Trojan horses, and
everything looked good. Do I now have a virus that corrupted the file or a
bad HDD? What can I do to reinstall without reformatting and losing this last
weeks data. Is my HDD dead or what? In the words of that great man who set
out to drain the swamp and found himself up to his but in alligators, HELP!

 

[MAP]

You need to do a repair install. And yes this should keep all of your info
intact
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I have a corrupted or missing file as listed above. I tried to do a repair
from the XP install disk that came with the system. It removed my OS and
tried to do a reinstall and then was unable to load a couple of files. I
disk
a dischk and found some bad sectors. I did a repair on them but I still
just
a a door stop that looks like an HP Pavilion 3010US laptop. I had a pro
last
week check the system over ant they found no virus or Trojan horses, and
everything looked good. Do I now have a virus that corrupted the file or a
bad HDD? What can I do to reinstall without reformatting and losing this
last
weeks data. Is my HDD dead or what? In the words of that great man who set
out to drain the swamp and found himself up to his but in alligators,
HELP!

First, it isn't a "configsys" file, there isn't one in XP. It's a file
named "system", one part of the registry, which is tored in the config
subfolder of the system32 folder.

This file is damaged or otherwise unloadable.

This is a fairly common problem. You need an XP boot cd to fix this
(unless you have a Linux boot CD that you know how to use, or can move the
drive to another system).

Full directions are here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

Note that a repair install will sometimes just not fix this kind of damage,
because repair installs use as much of the old registry as they can.

As to your last week's data, that is *easy* to back up if you have a drive
connector or case and another system. Take your drive out, attach it to
the other system, copy the data. You may need to Take Ownership.

One easy way to be sure you get everything, including the mail and address
book files you forgot about, is to use the Acronis TrueImage trial.
Install this to the other system, reboot, then attach the drive and image
it. You can then open the image and copy the files as needed.

HTH
-pk