No SYSTEM file and blue screen

[Vikram Goyal]

Hello,

I have Windows XP Professional on a Dell Inspiron 8000
notebook.

Overnight, I had left the computer in hibernation and
this morning when I woke up, the computer would not start
from this hibernation. It said the because of a read
failure, the restoration data will be deleted and you
need to start again. So, I did this.

When the computer started, I got the error "Windows
cannot start because windows\system32\config\system file
is not present or corrupt". I looked through the
newsgroups and found that by starting the system in the
recovery console, I could copy my system.sav to system
and the original system file to system.bak to fix this
problem.

When I did this, windows tries to start but halts and a
blue screen pops up. This basically says that "a problem
has been detected and windows cannot start." The problem
is in 0x0000007B (more hex digits).

If I go back and restore the system file, I get the
original error.

In the recovery console, I have run chkdsk and chkdsk
runs for 5% and then says that it cannot continue because
of an unrecoverable error.

Please help! I had a deadline for tomorrow and if I can't
recover my data, I am lost !!

Regards,
Vikram Goyal

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

0x7B usually means a problem with boot.ini, either corrupt or pointing
someplace where it shouldn't be. Boot the CD, enter the Recovery Console,
run bootcfg /rebuild from the command prompt.

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP [Q307654]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307654

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Malke]

Hello,

I have Windows XP Professional on a Dell Inspiron 8000
notebook.

Overnight, I had left the computer in hibernation and
this morning when I woke up, the computer would not start
from this hibernation. It said the because of a read
failure, the restoration data will be deleted and you
need to start again. So, I did this.

When the computer started, I got the error "Windows
cannot start because windows\system32\config\system file
is not present or corrupt". I looked through the
newsgroups and found that by starting the system in the
recovery console, I could copy my system.sav to system
and the original system file to system.bak to fix this
problem.

When I did this, windows tries to start but halts and a
blue screen pops up. This basically says that "a problem
has been detected and windows cannot start." The problem
is in 0x0000007B (more hex digits).

If I go back and restore the system file, I get the
original error.

In the recovery console, I have run chkdsk and chkdsk
runs for 5% and then says that it cannot continue because
of an unrecoverable error.

Please help! I had a deadline for tomorrow and if I can't
recover my data, I am lost !!

Take the computer to a good local computer shop (not a CompUSA/BestBuy
type of store). Have them slave the hard drive to one of their machines
and copy over your data and burn onto CD. Have them test the hard drive
and other hardware for you before you bother reinstalling Windows. If
the hardware is good, then you can try doing a Repair Install, but I
think you'll wind up doing a clean (format the drive) install anyway so
you might as well start there. If the machine is under warranty, then
have Dell deal with it.

Malke

 

[Vikram Goyal]

Take the computer to a good local computer shop (not a CompUSA/BestBuy
type of store). Have them slave the hard drive to one of their machines
and copy over your data and burn onto CD. Have them test the hard drive
and other hardware for you before you bother reinstalling Windows. If
the hardware is good, then you can try doing a Repair Install, but I
think you'll wind up doing a clean (format the drive) install anyway so
you might as well start there. If the machine is under warranty, then
have Dell deal with it.

Malke

Thanks Malke,

I was trying to save the data in the recovery console
because I can see my a drive. I can even create
directories on a floppy but when I try to copy files from
the c drive, my harddisk, to the a drive, I get "Access
is denied" error. I have checked that the floppies are
not write protected and have tried several floppies and
tried copying several files. Would you know why this
would be happening?

Regards,
Vikram

 

[Vikram Goyal]

Thanks Rick,

When I tried to run this command, I got the error that
bootcfg was unable to scan the drives because of a
corrupt file system and cannot continue.

Arggghhhhhhh!

Regards,
Vikram

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

Not good, it may not be recoverable. If possible, install WinXP to a
different partition or drive and try to recover your data. The corrupt
partition may not be accessible however, so the effort may be fruitless.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Vikram Goyal]

Ok. I can see the data on the harddrive when I log in
through the recovery console. I can access my floppy
drive as well. I tried to copy data to a drive, but it
says access is denied!

Any ideas how I can get around this?

All help appreciated...

Vikram

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

Any ideas how I can get around this?

Can't, the RC is limited in what it allows you to do. I'd recommend going
with my prior suggestion.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Malke]

Thanks Malke,

I was trying to save the data in the recovery console
because I can see my a drive. I can even create
directories on a floppy but when I try to copy files from
the c drive, my harddisk, to the a drive, I get "Access
is denied" error. I have checked that the floppies are
not write protected and have tried several floppies and
tried copying several files. Would you know why this
would be happening?

This could be a permissions issue. Normally when you run into that
problem, you take ownership of the files (you have to be in an account
with administrative privileges). I'm not sure you can do this in
Recovery Console. Since your original post indicated that time was of
the essence, I suggested you take the machine into a shop and rescue
the data that way first, unless you have a notebook drive adapter and
an extra desktop around so you can do the slave/rescue thing yourself.
I still think that's the way to go so you have your data before you
start messing around. I still think you're going to lose this
installation completely, either because of a bad hard drive or because
of a corrupted operating system. Also, and I mean this as gently and
sweetly as possible, learn how to back up your data and do it regularly
for the future. Stuff like this *always* happens with computers and
it's good to Be Prepared.

Cheers and good luck,

Malke