System file corrupt or missing - unable to restore

[miguel.valle]

As many others I ran into the "system file corrupt or missing"
problem. I tried following the instructions in
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545&Product=winxp
to fix the problem. However, when I got to the part of "Open a folder
that was not created at the current time. You may have to click
Details on the View menu to see when these folders were created. There
may be one or more folders starting with "RPx under this folder. These
are restore points." I could not find any "restore points".

Am I doomed to do a clean re-install?

 

[John Wunderlich]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in

As many others I ran into the "system file corrupt or missing"
problem. I tried following the instructions in
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545&Prod
uct=winxp to fix the problem. However, when I got to the part of
"Open a folder that was not created at the current time. You may
have to click Details on the View menu to see when these folders
were created. There may be one or more folders starting with "RPx
under this folder. These are restore points." I could not find any
"restore points".

Am I doomed to do a clean re-install?

I think you're doomed to do a clean reinstall.

But before you do that, make sure you back up all your data that you
need onto another disk or drive. Do this by either removing your hard
drive and installing it as a slave drive in another computer, or boot
your system from a boot CD and use the USB or Network ports to copy out
your data.

Free Boot Disks:
"Ultimate Boot CD for Windows"
<http://www.ubcd4win.com/>
"Knoppix" (Live Linux CD)
<http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html>


HTH,
John

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi,

Are you able to boot into Safe Mode and run System Restore?

All About System Restore in WinXP
http://bertk.mvps.org/index.html

If not, I would suggest performing a repair install if possible.

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install by Michael Stevens MS-MVP:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

How to perform a repair installation of Windows XP if IE 7 is installed
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;917964

Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org