missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE

[Mark]

As the subject says, this was the error message I was being shown when my
computer failed to load. I went and brought a new hard drive to help solve
the problem. I installed XP on the new hard drive and updated it and so on, I
then connected the old hard drive as a slave to see if I could retrieve my
files.

The problem I'm having is that I cant open my old user folder, its says
access denied. I think its because I had a password and made my folders
private. Is there any way around this? I really need to retrieve all my old
files and documents.

I had a look on here and searched for "hive file missing" and made it to
this page:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545

I followed what it said so that I could use Guided Help on another computer
(my old hard drive). To try and get it up and running again so I could gain
access to my files. I saved everything to a flash drive so that I could use
it in the recovery console. Basically, I've made it as far as running the
"batch regcopy1.txt" file and then restarted the computer. It said to log on
as the administrator and run the Guided Help.exe file. The problem is I cant
log on as the admin, its created a new user called Owner and I cant run
anything.

Can anyone help me out with this? Is it possible to remove the Owner account
so that I can log in with my original one? Or is it possible to gain access
to my old user folder whilst using the hard drive as a slave?

Thank you!

 

[jake]

Do you have xp pro or home
You have to take ownership of the files

 

[jake]

have a look here
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

 

[Mark]

I have XP Home, I've just looked at the link. How do I start up in safe mode?

 

[jake]

restart and keep hitting f8 until a black screen comes up.
select safe mode

 

[Mark]

So if I connect my old hard drive as a slave, can I still take ownership of
the folder using my new hard drive? Also would taking ownership of my old
user folder, give me ownership of all its contents?

 

[jake]

Yes that should work
And since your doing this all from within windows you can just copy and
paste to fix your config file.

 

[Mark]

I've done it all now, I just copied all my files from my old hard drive to my
external hard drive so that I have them all backed up. I'm going to format
both hard drives tomorrow and start from scratch (again). Hopefully when I
have sorted it all out i.e. installed XP and updated it, when I go to put my
files back on the PC I shouldnt have any ownership problems. I will aslo have
two hard drives to use now, not sure what I'll use the second one for....

Thank you for you help Jake

 

[jake]

Your welcome

I've done it all now, I just copied all my files from my old hard drive to my
external hard drive so that I have them all backed up. I'm going to format
both hard drives tomorrow and start from scratch (again). Hopefully when I
have sorted it all out i.e. installed XP and updated it, when I go to put my
files back on the PC I shouldnt have any ownership problems. I will aslo have
two hard drives to use now, not sure what I'll use the second one for....

Thank you for you help Jake

 

[jake]

If you want to try to repair the software file and avoid a full reinstall.Go
to c:/system volume and find the most recent restore point(right
click/properties and check the date that the folder was created) in the
folder you will see another folder called snapshot.In there you will see a
bunch of files that look simular to _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE Copy this file
and rename to software.Go to c:/windows/system32/config folder and rename
software to software1.Now take the file that you renamed to software and put
in the config folder.reboot and see what happens.