Missing File

[John McKenzie]

Hello,
I have a small problem with an old Dell Latitude laptop. When it boots
up I am getting the following message:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM"
I tried to use the repair utility but, it seemed not to work.

Any help would be great,
Thanks,

John

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545


Hello,
I have a small problem with an old Dell Latitude laptop. When it boots
up I am getting the following message:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM"
I tried to use the repair utility but, it seemed not to work.

Any help would be great,
Thanks,

John

 

[John McKenzie]

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545


Hello,
I have a small problem with an old Dell Latitude laptop. When it boots
up I am getting the following message:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM"
I tried to use the repair utility but, it seemed not to work.

Any help would be great,
Thanks,

John

Thanks this link should help.

John

 

[John McKenzie]

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545


Hello,
I have a small problem with an old Dell Latitude laptop. When it boots
up I am getting the following message:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM"
I tried to use the repair utility but, it seemed not to work.

Any help would be great,
Thanks,

John

One question come to mind when reading the above document. There is a
warning about OEM installed software. Does that include the OS, which
has Dell proprietary features?

John

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

If you use the Dell Windows XP Reinstallation CD, you'll be fine.

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545


Hello,
I have a small problem with an old Dell Latitude laptop. When it boots
up I am getting the following message:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM"
I tried to use the repair utility but, it seemed not to work.

Any help would be great,
Thanks,

John

One question come to mind when reading the above document. There is a
warning about OEM installed software. Does that include the OS, which
has Dell proprietary features?

John

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hello,
I have a small problem with an old Dell Latitude laptop. When it boots
up I am getting the following message:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM"
I tried to use the repair utility but, it seemed not to work.

Any help would be great,
Thanks,

John

How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry that Prevents Windows XP from
Starting
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545

Once you've recovered, you might want to look here, as well, to
eliminate, or at least minimize, future problems:

How to Troubleshoot Registry Corruption Issues
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822705


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Patrick Keenan]

One question come to mind when reading the above document. There is a
warning about OEM installed software. Does that include the OS, which has
Dell proprietary features?

John

I have used this process sucessfully on Dell systems. AFAIK the issue is
that the files in question may not be in the stock location, so the copying
doesn't work properly. In that case, you simply attach the drive to
another system, or boot with a Linux or BartPE CD, and move the files
manually.

It's actually very easy (aside from the typing) to do once you understand
what the task is about, and you can be done in half an hour or less.

There *is* an issue if System Restore was turned OFF on the XP install. In
that case, you can only use the default install registry, which knows
nothing about anything that was installed later. You can start the system,
but you have to reinstall everything to regenerate the registry. A
similar problem would occur if restore points were infected by a virus,
which does happen.

HTH
-pk

 

[Gerry]

Bruce

KB Article 822705 applies to Windows XP Professional but Windows XP Home
Edition is not mentioned. Any idea why?

TIA

--



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

 

[John McKenzie]

Hello,
I have a small problem with an old Dell Latitude laptop. When it boots
up I am getting the following message:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM"
I tried to use the repair utility but, it seemed not to work.

Any help would be great,
Thanks,

John

Thanks you all for the help. the steps outlined in KB307545 worked just
fine; However, I decided after the computer was up an running again
that it would be best to do a clean install and get rid of all the
files, etc. collected since 2002.

John