recovery console not starting

[Guest]

hello,

I'm trying to start my recovery console because
windows/system32/config/system is missing, which I know means there's a
corrupted registry. However, when I boot from my Dell Win XP CD and try to
start the recovery console, I get a stop 0x51 error, registry error. How can
I start the recovery console. I do not have a floppy drive. thanks for any
help

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

hello,

I'm trying to start my recovery console because
windows/system32/config/system is missing, which I know means there's a
corrupted registry. However, when I boot from my Dell Win XP CD and try to
start the recovery console, I get a stop 0x51 error, registry error. How can
I start the recovery console. I do not have a floppy drive. thanks for any
help

Press F8 during the early boot phase, then try to launch
Windows in "Last known good configuration".

 

[Guest]

Press F8 during the early boot phase, then try to launch
Windows in "Last known good configuration".

Unfortunately, before I can do that I am told that the config/system can't
be found, and I should boot from the CD and hit r for the recovery console

 

[Guest]

Press F8 during the early boot phase, then try to launch
Windows in "Last known good configuration".

oops, looks like I was able to hit F8 at the right time, but choosing last
good configuration still gives the error.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

oops, looks like I was able to hit F8 at the right time, but choosing last
good configuration still gives the error.

If the normal boot process says that your registry is corrupted and if
the Recovery Console says the same thing then the registry is
probably corrupted. Here is what I would do in this situation:

1. Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk (www.bootdisk.com),
then run ntfsdos.exe (www.sysinternals.com) in order to see if
the file c:\windows\system32\config\system.alt exists. If it does
then I would temporarily install the problem disk in some other
WinXP/2000 PC in order to replace the file SYSTEM with
SYSTEM.ALT. If this does not work then . . .
2. Boot the machine with the WinXP OS CD, then select a
repair option other than the Recovery Console. If this does
work then . . .
3. Install WinXP over the top of the existing installation. If this
does not work then . . .
4. Allow the disk to be formatted, then install WinXP. You will,
of course, lose all your existing files.
..