Problems with Win XP not booting up

[John Williams]

Today Windows XP just turned to a black screen and then I
had to reboot. After rebooting I'm getting this error:

STOP: C0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The Registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\config\DEFAULT
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

I've tried booting into Safe Mode, Last Known Good
Configuration...etc. and nothing will work. Windows gets
to that point and just reboots.

Is there anyway to fix this? e.g. can a registry be
loaded in from a day or two ago...like Windows 98 use to
allow you to do with ScanReg?

Thanks!

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Please check the following Knowledge Base Articles:
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;Q307545
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318159

 

[davetest]

Today Windows XP just turned to a black screen and then I
had to reboot. After rebooting I'm getting this error:

STOP: C0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The Registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\config\DEFAULT
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

I've tried booting into Safe Mode, Last Known Good
Configuration...etc. and nothing will work. Windows gets
to that point and just reboots.

Is there anyway to fix this? e.g. can a registry be
loaded in from a day or two ago...like Windows 98 use to
allow you to do with ScanReg?

Thanks!

Have you tried the safemode command prompt?
From there you can invoke system restore, which may fix it.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q304449

Dave