Looped restarts/ corrupted registry

[Christi K]

Had problem with looping restarts, changed my startup to find error ....
\systemroot\system32\config\software being corrupted, missing or the like.
So, search done to find solution, which I assumed to be article 307545. As
my printer is not recognized in safe mode, I had to handwrite all the
directions down. So it appears my main goal should be to access the recovery
console.
Here is my issue (or at least one of them!) My XP is an upgrade (from 2000,
from 95, from 98), and when I try and boot from the disk drive, it doesn't
work. When I restart from safe mode, and try to access the disk, I am not
able to access anything to get into a recovery console. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Had problem with looping restarts, changed my startup to find error ....
\systemroot\system32\config\software being corrupted, missing or the like.
So, search done to find solution, which I assumed to be article 307545.

Yes, these instructions often work well.

As
my printer is not recognized in safe mode, I had to handwrite all the
directions down.

Gain access to another system, such as the one you're posting from, and
print them from there. Also, you'll notice that the article mentions
making a text file with the commands listed. Do this, adjust it for your
system, and save it to floppy so that you can use it. It will make things a
*lot* easier.

So it appears my main goal should be to access the recovery
console.
Here is my issue (or at least one of them!) My XP is an upgrade (from
2000,
from 95, from 98), and when I try and boot from the disk drive, it doesn't
work.

What do you mean by this?

When I restart from safe mode, and try to access the disk, I am not
able to access anything to get into a recovery console. Any ideas?
Thanks

You can't get to the Recovery Console from Safe Mode. You have to either
boot to it - and the console has to be installed for this - or you boot from
an XP CD. You can use any bootable XP CD for this purpose, Home or Pro,
retail or oem.

For looping restarts, there's a trick that sometimes works very well.
Either attach the drive to another system using a USB adapter, or boot from
another CD that recognises NTFS, such as a Linux CD. Look in the root for
the one or two very large files, pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys. Delete
them, and empty the wastebasket. Put the drive back and restart. You may
have to restart twice.

You can also perform most of the file operations listed in KB 307545 from
that CD or from the host system. Simply adapt them for the method you've
used to access the disk.

HTH
-pk

 

[Andrew E.]

Safe-mode and/or kb307545 have nothing to do with recovery console,& a
floppy drive will do you no good either..Simply start pc & enter the BIOS,set
boot option to cdrom with xp cd installed as 1st boot device,hd 2nd,save &
exit.At prompt,select to boot to xp cd,once at cd menu,press r for
recovery,
select 1 for C: press enter for password.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Safe-mode and/or kb307545 have nothing to do with recovery console,

Oh, yes it does. The KB article is specifically about using the Recovery
Console to fix the damaged registry problem.

& a
floppy drive will do you no good either

Again, that KB article refers repeatedly to using a floppy to automate the
commands you'd otherwise have to type in.

You might want to read the article.

..Simply start pc & enter the BIOS,set
boot option to cdrom with xp cd installed as 1st boot device,hd 2nd,save &
exit.At prompt,select to boot to xp cd,once at cd menu,press r for
recovery,
select 1 for C: press enter for password.

Which puts you in the recovery console, at which pount you can enter the
commands as detailed in that KB article, and use the floppy to speed the
process.

HTH
-pk

 

[Gerry]

Christi

I imagine the computer is ancient. The procedures you are attempting are
not easy and do not always work. It could be the problem is because the
hard disk is failing. Is there any important data on the computer? If
there is you need to recover the data before attempting to restore the
operating system.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Christi K]

as clarification,
I am able to get to safe mode with networking....which is where I am now, on
the troubled computer.
I got the looping to stop, that's how I found out the error.
I switched BIOS to boot from disk, and it won't do it. The yellow light
comes on, as if it's reading and going to boot, but after a moment I get BSOD
(with the same error message). So, I thought I might try accessing the
"install" from safe mode.
In safe mode, I can get the welcome to microsoft xp window for the disk, but
when I click on install windows XP nothing happens. When I click on other
options (like install optional windows components, I am able to access those.
The other one I can't get accessed is checking compatibility, it opens to
the next page, but then won't let me select.
I am not sure if this matters or not, but (as further clarification), this
computer has windows 95 installed, with a windows 98 upgrade, with a 2000
upgrade, and my XP, is of course, an upgrade.
As Gerry guessed, this is not a young computer(would you expect less with
that many "upgrades?), however it is the computer I have at the moment.
There is nothing "important" on the system, a ton of music and photos, and I
can save those to thumb drives.
Patrick, I will try the attaching "the drive to another system using a USB
adapter. Look in the root for the one or two very large files,
pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys. Delete them, and empty the wastebasket.
Put the drive back and restart. You may have to restart twice." method on
Monday (my day off, when I can hopefully drive up north get one of my dad's
old computers---or maybe get him to do the work for me!).
Thanks all for your help, and hopefully it'll work!

 

[Peter Foldes]

Patrick

Ignore Andrew. He is the resident idiot who creates more issues then any OP needs
with his continuous wrong instructions in his answers

 

[Patrick Keenan]

as clarification,
I am able to get to safe mode with networking....which is where I am now,
on
the troubled computer.
I got the looping to stop, that's how I found out the error.
I switched BIOS to boot from disk, and it won't do it. The yellow light
comes on, as if it's reading and going to boot, but after a moment I get
BSOD
(with the same error message).

Borrow another bootable XP CD and try it. If it still fails, consider
hardware failure.

If this system is very old, consider cutting your losses in favour of a
newer, used system. For comparison, I've recently purchased a number of
used HP 7100's, which a 3gHz P4 systems, SATA drive, 512M RAM, no monitor
but with a valid XP Pro license, for under $200 each. Adding a larger hard
disk, more memory and a DVD burner took the cost up to about $400 and they
are excellent systems, very fast.

If you go this route, also buy a can of compressed air, open the case, and
blow out the dust from all the heat sinks, fans, case and power supply. Do
NOT use a vaccum cleaner for this.

HTH
-pk