restoring windows without cd

[Guest]

i installed software for my wireless lan card i bought on ebay, though windows said it was not digitaly signed or something i installed it now when i try booting up i get this messege: windows could not start because the following file is missing or corupt : c:\windows\system32\config\system i'm using xp pro and i cannot find my original cd how would i restore windows or whateve

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----
i installed software for my wireless lan card i bought

on ebay, though windows said it was not digitaly signed
or something i installed it now when i try booting up i
get this messege: windows could not start because the
following file is missing or corupt : c:\windows\system32
\config\system i'm using xp pro and i cannot find my
original cd how would i restore windows or whatever

.

Well, if you have no cd, you must determine what version
of windows you have.
XP Home / XP Home SP1
XP Pro / XP Pro SP1
get the appropriate boot disks here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-
us;310994
follow the instructions carefully.

Once you create the boot disks (all 6, and # them
correctly)
Follow this Article carefully:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-
us;307545

When you boot from the disks, you will be presented with
three (3) options:
F3 -> to quit
ENTER -> To set up XP
R -> Repair installation with the recovery console.

The previous article starts in the recovery console, so
you will need to hit "R" to get there from the boot disks.

Most PC's have floppy seek enabled in the BIOS so it
should boot from the floppies w/o looking to the hard
drive.

 

[Guest]

i have xp pro sp1 installed i got a xp home cd i typed in r and now it takes me to c:\windows what do i do next ?

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----
i have xp pro sp1 installed i got a xp home cd i typed

in r and now it takes me to c:\windows what do i do next ?

.

ok, good.
type this (VERY CAREFULLY!!)
**ENTER after each line*
md tmp
cd \system32\config
ren system system.old
ren software software.old
ren sam sam.old
ren security security.old
ren default default.old
copy c:\windows\repair\system system
copy c:\windows\repair\software software
copy c:\windows\repair\sam sam
copy c:\windows\repair\security security
copy c:\windows\repair\default default

You should see the message "One File Copied" after each
of the last 5 lines
if you did, type exit, and hit enter
take the cd out as the machine boots up, and tap F8 to
get to the advanced startup menu options, then select
safemode, and hit enter.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry that Prevents Windows XP from
Starting
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545

But you should probably start here:

How to Troubleshoot Registry Corruption Issues
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822705


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:




You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[Alex Nichol]

i have xp pro sp1 installed i got a xp home cd i typed in r and now it takes me to c:\windows what do i do next ?

It is not clear what you are aiming to achieve. If it is to do a Repair
reinstall, you would start Setup and *then* - after the license
agreement - take Repair Installation. But I am pretty sure you will
find a Home edition CD will not Repair a Pro installation. Or you can
make a completely fresh clean install of Home; but that will remove all
your installed programs *and* data, so back them up first if you still
can. Then at the same point take New Install. When it asks you to
confirm where, hit ESC; select and delete the current partition and make
a new RAW one to be formatted at the next stage

The important point is the delete. Without that it will just go ahead
and make a new install over the top of the old one. That might be
useful as an intermediate stage to back up data - but no more than that