Registry Corruption

J

Jerry Schwartz

Let's see if someone has come up with anything...

I had an installation routine throw a Dr. Watson on me a couple of weeks
ago. Since then, every time I boot the system (XP Pro, SP2) I get the
Registry Recovery popup. Evidently, although the message says the registry
was recovered successfully that's a lie (or some flag is stuck, somewhere).

I can't figure out where the corruption is, and there were no system
checkpoints available. (That's another mystery.)

Just as a couple of quick checks, I tried exporting the entire registry; and
I also added a "TestMe" key to the end of the registry, and did a search for
it. RegEdit didn't complain in either case, so it appears that the registry
isn't "broken" in that sense.

The system seems to run okay, but this isn't very comforting for the long
term.

Suggestions?

--
Regards,

Jerry Schwartz
http://www.writebynight.com
e-card JerryS https://ecardfile.com/
 
J

Jon Erlandson

You might get system restore working and see if that makes a difference. To
repair system restore, locate "sr.inf" in \windows\inf folder, right click
and select install. You'll need your windows xp cd and this repair will
erase all prior restore points.

You could also try running "chkdsk /f" and "sfc / scannow."

about "sfc / scannow"
http://www.compphix.com/windowsfileprotection.html


Beyond that try the following...

http://www.alegsa.com.ar/Visitas/index14/Registry recovery message when booting windows.php

How to troubleshoot registry corruption issues
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822705

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from
starting
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545
 
J

Jerry Schwartz

It isn't that System Restore isn't working, it's that it didn't have any
breakpoints saved! It's saving them now, both manually and automatically, so
I have no clue why that was the case when I really needed it.

Chkdsk comes up clean, although right after the original calamity it did
"fix" some things.

SFC is something I need to understand a bit better before using it. I am
less familiar with XP than older versions of Windows, and am rather afraid
I'd wind up having to find and reinstall every patch since time began if I
let it run on autopilot.

The stuff in \windows\repair dates back to when my problem first started, I
think. Isn't that what the system is using when it "recovers" my registry at
boot time? If so, it's already toasted.

By the way, the popup doesn't happen until after I log on; is that a clue,
perhaps?

I'm comfortable editing the registry directly using Regedit, I just don't
know where the problem could be.

--
Regards,

Jerry Schwartz
http://www.writebynight.com
e-card JerryS https://ecardfile.com/
 
J

Jerry Schwartz

That was a good thought, but it didn't do much (except perhaps narrow down
the problem a tad). I created a new user, but I get the same popup
regardless of which user I log on as. The error only pops when I boot the
machine, not when I switch users or log off and log back on without booting.

Ironically, I first noticed the problem when I was getting ready to make a
disaster recovery backup.

--
Regards,

Jerry Schwartz
http://www.writebynight.com
e-card JerryS https://ecardfile.com/
 
J

Jerry Schwartz

I've used Norton's WinDoctor, it hasn't helped.

On a Win98 system, I would have exported the entire registry, booted to a
command prompt, moved the registry out of the way and imported my export.
That would rebuild the structure. If the export itself failed, I'd have a
clue as to where the problem is.

On XP, I can export the registry without a whimper; but if it's possible to
do a complete rebuild, I don't know how.

--
Regards,

Jerry Schwartz
http://www.writebynight.com
e-card JerryS https://ecardfile.com/
 
J

Jerry Schwartz

I tried a couple of other tools (trial versions), and although they reported
various numbers of "missing file" type errors (one threw several hundred,
which I mistrust) none suggested anything that looked relevant to my
problem.

If I do a repair installation, what will I be losing? Is this likely to fix
the registry?

--
Regards,

Jerry Schwartz
http://www.writebynight.com
e-card JerryS https://ecardfile.com/
 
J

Jon Erlandson

A repair install would erase all reference to installed programs, you'd have
to reinstall everything but would likely fix the problem. Also, I believe
you'd lose all updates. You can slipstream SP2 but I don't know about the
other updates.
 
J

Jon Erlandson

You might uninstall everything Norton and see if that helps. Symantec stuff
is notorious for causing all sorts of quirky problems.
 
J

Jerry Schwartz

I uninstalled Norton, as well as everything I'd installed in the last month,
with no joy.

While perusing another thread, I found a description of NTREGOP. It does
exactly what I wanted: export and rebuild the registry. It fixed my problem.

Although the program is freeware, the author will be getting a contribution
from me.

--
Regards,

Jerry Schwartz
http://www.writebynight.com
e-card JerryS https://ecardfile.com/
 
J

Jerry Schwartz

I don't know. It certainly sounds like a candidate for a PowerToy, but I
suspect its potential for damaging a system might make it too much of a
liability. After all, any hiccough in its operation could leave the system
unbootable. It does essentially the same thing that the DOS-based regedit
did on Win9x, so you could wind up with no registry at all.

The author also has a backup and recovery utility, which I would have used
first if I weren't on the verge of reinstalling my system anyways.

--
Regards,

Jerry Schwartz
http://www.writebynight.com
e-card JerryS https://ecardfile.com/
 

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