If the computer is not accessible over the network you will have to
access the installation as a simple data disk and use a suitable
registry editor. You can use one of the following methods:
1- Use something like BartPE
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ with a
registry editor plugin
http://sourceforge.net/projects/regeditpe/to edit
the registry.
2- Mount the disk (slaved or otherwise) in another Windows NT type
computer and use the "Load Hive" feature in Regedit or Regedt32.
3- Access the broken installation via a "Parallel" or proper "Dual Boot"
installation on the same computer and use the "Load Hive" feature in
Regedit or Regedt32.
For option 1 follow the instructions from the authors of the utilities
in question. For options 2 and 3, from the working Windows installation
you have to access the desired registry hive in the
%systemroot%\system32\config folder of the broken installation. To do
so you are going to use the "Load Hive" function in the Registry Editor
menu. If you are accessing the disk using another Windows XP
installation use Regedit, if you are accessing the disk from a Windows
NT or Windows 2000 installation use Regedt32.
1- Open the registry editor and bring forth and highlight the current
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive.
2- Now from the Registry Editor menu select "Load Hive". Navigate to
the broken installation registry in the inactive installation. The hive
will be in the %systemroot%\system32\config folder. The hive you want
to load is the SYSTEM hive (without an extension).
3- You will be asked to give the hive/key a temporary name, you can
call it anything you want, like xyz for example.
4- Now you will see the xyz key in the hklm tree structure. Double
click and edit the necessary key. You will not see a
"CurrentControlSet" when you edit an offline registry. To determine
which one of the ControlSet00n will load when you boot the installation
go to the "Select" key (in the xyz hive) and note the reference number
in the Default: REG_DWORD, then edit the corresponding ControlSet. If
the Default: REG_DWORD is "0x1" then edit CurrentControlSet001.
5- When you are done highlight the xyz key and in the Registry menu
select "Unload Hive".
6- Exit Regedit or Regedt32.
This will help you better understand the instructions:
http://www.rwin.ch/xp-live/regedit.htm
John
Penny wrote:
So how does one go about editing the registry remotely when the broken system
isn't visible on the network (since it can't boot up completely).
As far as mounting to another NT machine, are you talking about taking the
hard drive out of the broken machine and slaving it to another machine?
What tools would be needed for the boot CD? I've been using the Windows XP
CD, but that only gets me to the recovery console, which thusfar hasn't done
me any good, but if I can expand to the right thing from the CD, that sounds
logical.
This would be a beneficial thing to know. Until today I was always able to
boot machines with stop errors into safe mode to turn off the auto reboot on
stop error, but now that I have experienced not being able to even get into
safe mode, it's nearly impossible to see what the stop error is, and without
knowing that, it's kind of hard to determine the appropriate action to take
next.
:
Hi,
Unfortunately that wont work, for two reasons:
1- Reg.exe is not available from the Recovery Console. I know of no
way to modify the registry from the Recovery Console.
2- On a "sleeping" Windows installation there is no
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ key. The key is created
from one of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet00n keys when the
computer boots up, it's a "pseudo" key. During the boot process the
boot loader checks the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Select key to see which
ControlSet to load, then copies the selected ControlSet to the
CurrentControlSet key.
To change the AutoReboot behaviour the registry has to be edited
remotely (from a network machine or mounted in another Windows NT type
machine) or from a boot cd with appropriate tools on board. To
determine which ControlSet00n key to edit you have to get the
information from the Select key.
hth,
John
NewScience wrote:
Hope this is available under Recovery Console:
1. Startup Recovery Console
2. Enter reg.exe (see if it's there)
If it's there, on another machine, create a AutoStop.reg file (call it
anything you want - but it must end with .reg)
Using Notepad, type this in:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl]
"AutoReboot"=dword:00000000
Save it on a floppy.
Bring broken machine up again under recovery console. Enter:
reg.exe import A:\AutoStop.reg
It should reply successful. This will stop AutoReboot on STOP errors.
If you cannot find reg.exe under Recovery console, copy it on the floppy you
are putting the .reg file on. It's only 50,174 bytes. Both can fit. Then
use everything from A: on the broken system.
Let me know if it worked. If it does, you can fix anything wrong in the
registry using the reg.exe program and possibly fix anything else wrong with
your PC.
Thanks for the quick response.
I initially tried getting the ntoskrnl.exe from another machine, but
unfortunately the file is too big for a floppy, and since I can't boot
into
any mode of windows the machine won't be able to see my thumb drive. So
when
the things I tried didn't work that's when I came to the forums.
At this point I can sort of get past the problem, but still can't
successfully get the system to boot enough for me to turn off the auto
reboot
on STOP error so I can see what else is going on. Do you know of a way I
can
do that other than the control panel?
:
If you have had a full updated XP SP2 (with all patches) on this system,
then the ntoskrnl.ex_ (which you expanded to ntoskrnl.exe and placed in
C:\Windows\System32 AND C:\Windows\System32\DllCache folders) may not be
the
version the rest of XP is looking for.
If I'm not mistakened ntoskrnl.exe was modified with some updates. You
need
to get a current ntosknrl.exe (maybe from another system)
I found other postings on this issue, but since they were from over a
year
ago thought if I were to reply to the thread that it might go
unanswered.
Windows XP won't start because it says that the ntoskrnl.exe is either
corrupt or missing. I found the knowledge base articles regarding
using
the
recovery console and copying ntoskrnl.ex_ from the CD to the
windows\system32
directory.
That got me past that issue (sort of) I tried every variation of
startup
options "normal" "Safe Mode" etc... and I can tell I'm getting a STOP
error,
but since I can't successfully get into windows I can't turn off the
"Automatically restart on stop error" in the control panel.
Does anyone know of a way I can accomplish this so I at least know what
stop
error I'm dealing with? Thus far the only thing I can do is get to the
recovery console.
I don't have a history on this particular machine, but most of our
machines
are XP Pro w/ SP2. This machine is a PIII.
