Trying to repair "missing or corrupt file"; XP CD won't boot

[ed0109]

XP Home Edition Dell 2400, 2 years old, received "Windows could not
start because file missing or corrupt:
\Windows\System32\Config\System". Having searched Usenet, the
consensus opinion to attempt a fix is to boot from the XP installation
CD to get to the Recovery Console. But I tried that and can't get
there -- when I attempt the boot from the CD, the only thing I get is
"Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility". So I press F1 and the
"Strike..." message repeats.

My boot sequence is CD first priority. I have 2 CD drives; tried both,
same result. To rule out the possibility the CD is bad, I took it to
another XP machine and was able to boot with it and get to the Recovery
option menu successfully. And yes, its the Home Edition CD.

Sounds like I have two problems, the "file missing or corrupt" and the
failure to boot from CD. Or is this one problem manifesting itself in
two different ways? Does anyone have any idea on where I might go from
here? Thanks very much in advance.

Ed

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

You may have to contact Dell support. When you boot from the XP CD what
options do you see - forget about the Recovery Console FTM?

--


Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[ed0109]

Thanks for your response, Will. When I attempt to boot with the CD on
the "bad" machine, there are no options...the F1/F2 choices that I
mentioned is all that appears. When I use that CD to boot on the
"good" machine, this is the sequence of events, all of which look
normal to me:

Press any key to boot from CD (note, I don't even get this on the bad
computer)

<I press the space bar>

Blue screen with words "Windows Setup" appears in upper-left, then in
white area along bottom of screen "Setup is loading files..." (bunch of
file names flash by). After that, "Setup is starting Windows" appears.

A few seconds later, "Welcome to Setup" and under that:
o To set up Windows XP now, press Enter.
o To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press
R.
o To quit setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

At this point, since this is my good computer, I remove the CD and
press F3 and windows starts from my harddrive normally.

Ed

 

[Rock]

XP Home Edition Dell 2400, 2 years old, received "Windows could not
start because file missing or corrupt:
\Windows\System32\Config\System". Having searched Usenet, the
consensus opinion to attempt a fix is to boot from the XP installation
CD to get to the Recovery Console. But I tried that and can't get
there -- when I attempt the boot from the CD, the only thing I get is
"Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility". So I press F1 and the
"Strike..." message repeats.

My boot sequence is CD first priority. I have 2 CD drives; tried both,
same result. To rule out the possibility the CD is bad, I took it to
another XP machine and was able to boot with it and get to the Recovery
option menu successfully. And yes, its the Home Edition CD.

Sounds like I have two problems, the "file missing or corrupt" and the
failure to boot from CD. Or is this one problem manifesting itself in
two different ways? Does anyone have any idea on where I might go from
here? Thanks very much in advance.

Ed

Download the use the 6 floppy startup disks to get to the recovery console.

How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994/en-us

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654/en-us

 

[ed0109]

Rock, Thanks unfortunately for your first suggestion I have no floppy
drive, and for the second, it looks like you need Windows up and
running before you can install the Recovery Console and have it as part
of your setup. Once I fix my problem, though, I can certainly use that
information and install it to have it there in case this happens again!
Meantime, I think I'll look for another boot CD and give it a try.
Even though the one I've tried seems to be a good one.

Ed

 

[Rock]

Rock, Thanks unfortunately for your first suggestion I have no floppy
drive, and for the second, it looks like you need Windows up and
running before you can install the Recovery Console and have it as part
of your setup. Once I fix my problem, though, I can certainly use that
information and install it to have it there in case this happens again!
Meantime, I think I'll look for another boot CD and give it a try.
Even though the one I've tried seems to be a good one.

Ed

Download the use the 6 floppy startup disks to get to the recovery
console.

How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994/en-us

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654/en-us

No you can run the recovery console by booting from the floppy disk. What
about getting an external USB floppy drive? Anyway, good luck.

 

[WTC]

XP Home Edition Dell 2400, 2 years old, received "Windows could not
start because file missing or corrupt:
\Windows\System32\Config\System". Having searched Usenet, the
consensus opinion to attempt a fix is to boot from the XP installation
CD to get to the Recovery Console. But I tried that and can't get
there -- when I attempt the boot from the CD, the only thing I get is
"Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility". So I press F1 and the
"Strike..." message repeats.

My boot sequence is CD first priority. I have 2 CD drives; tried both,
same result. To rule out the possibility the CD is bad, I took it to
another XP machine and was able to boot with it and get to the Recovery
option menu successfully. And yes, its the Home Edition CD.

Sounds like I have two problems, the "file missing or corrupt" and the
failure to boot from CD. Or is this one problem manifesting itself in
two different ways? Does anyone have any idea on where I might go from
here? Thanks very much in advance.

Remove the hard drive from the machine that is causing troubles and install
the drive into a Working XP Machine as a slave.

Then follow these directions.

Navigate to this folder on the slaved hard drive which I will call the D
drive:

d:\windows\system32\config

Copy the following files to a temp folder, if present:

system
software
sam
security
default

Then delete the above files from "d:\windows\system32\config".

Navigate to the following folder:

d:\System Volume Information\_restore{D86480E3-73EF-47BC-A0EB-A81BE6EE3ED8}

NOTE: _restore{D86480E3-73EF-47BC-A0EB-A81BE6EE3ED8} will have a different
name on your computer. Also you may need to gain access to this folder.
How to gain access to the System Volume Information folder
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309531/

Now there should be folders with names like RP1, RP2, RP3 and so on. Open
the folder with the highest RP# then open the "Snapshot" folder.

Copy the following files to "d:\windows\system32\config":

_REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM

Rename the file in "d:\windows\system32\config""

Rename _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT to DEFAULT
Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY to SECURITY
Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE to SOFTWARE
Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM to SYSTEM
Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM to SAM

Remove hard drive and install back into the troubled machine. Now see if
your system will start.

 

[ed0109]

I think I've zeroed in on my problem. Something's wrong with my DVD/RW
drive. (note I also have a CD-R drive.) Out of desparation, I went to
the Boot Menu and chose option 6. 6 is "Boot to Utility Partition".
There, as I discovered, you can test all your hardware devices, and so
I did. The test paused with an error 0F00:136C while reading my DVD/RW
drive.

So I exited the test, went to Setup and deactivated my DVD/RW drive. I
left my CD-R drive active.

Lo and behold, when I then booted with the XP CD drive in the CD-R
drive, I *finally* got to the Recovery Console. I noted after I
entered R for recovery, it began copying several files and I guess
that's all it had to do, because the only thing I did on the Recovery
Console prompt was to type "exit". Immediately, Windows booted up like
the good ole days. Just to be sure, as a final check, I then removed
the XP CD and restarted again; yep Windows came up.

So I'm in business again.

A big thanks to everyone who contributed suggestions to help with my
dilemma; I have saved all your ideas as I have a feeling I may need to
refer to them in the future.

But... I've left my DVD/RW drive disabled. I'm not sure how to go
about fixing it. I still can't read from it. When I run diagnostics,
the full error message is: "Error Code 0F00:136C IDE device failed.
Blank media or no media present in optical drive." (Yes, I do put the
XP CD drive in it.) Anyone have any ideas on exactly what this message
means, and how to fix it?

Ed

 

[Rock]

I think I've zeroed in on my problem. Something's wrong with my DVD/RW
drive. (note I also have a CD-R drive.) Out of desparation, I went to
the Boot Menu and chose option 6. 6 is "Boot to Utility Partition".
There, as I discovered, you can test all your hardware devices, and so
I did. The test paused with an error 0F00:136C while reading my DVD/RW
drive.

So I exited the test, went to Setup and deactivated my DVD/RW drive. I
left my CD-R drive active.

Lo and behold, when I then booted with the XP CD drive in the CD-R
drive, I *finally* got to the Recovery Console. I noted after I
entered R for recovery, it began copying several files and I guess
that's all it had to do, because the only thing I did on the Recovery
Console prompt was to type "exit". Immediately, Windows booted up like
the good ole days. Just to be sure, as a final check, I then removed
the XP CD and restarted again; yep Windows came up.

So I'm in business again.

A big thanks to everyone who contributed suggestions to help with my
dilemma; I have saved all your ideas as I have a feeling I may need to
refer to them in the future.

But... I've left my DVD/RW drive disabled. I'm not sure how to go
about fixing it. I still can't read from it. When I run diagnostics,
the full error message is: "Error Code 0F00:136C IDE device failed.
Blank media or no media present in optical drive." (Yes, I do put the
XP CD drive in it.) Anyone have any ideas on exactly what this message
means, and how to fix it?

Ed

The recovery console doesn't do anything on it's own, just processes what
ever commands you type on the command line. Sounds like, had you booted
directly into windows it would have started.

 

[RJK]

Thanks muchly to Will Denny, S. Sengupta, usasma and Rock for your
responses, on my "Bad Pool Caller / 0x000000C2" post in XP General".
....which I now suspect was connected with conflicting VGA drivers...


Downstairs - Dads system box:-

Foxconn 760GXK8MC-S_RS
Skt754 2800 Sempron / 512mb pc2700 / 80gb Seagate
MX440 AGP card / WMP54g pci Linksys wireless card
LG Combo (dvd reader/cd rewriter)

....is the one that went BSOD with:-
*** STOP: 0x000000C2 (0x00000043, 0xC2264000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
....and I wonder if this is how it was caused ? ...

A couple of months ago when I assembled and installed this PC, I popped in a
spare 40gb WD hd as Slave to IDE0, and Ghosted C:\ onto it, and left it
disconnected in the box - to reduce noise. At that time it had a Bewan ADSL
pci modem in it. That was uninstalled and removed a couple of weeks ago
when I put a WMP54G into it. ...also relevant, if you bear with me for
few a seconds, is that initially the box was using the onboard graphics chip
and a couple of weeks later I ended up with a spare MX440 - so I popped that
into Dads PC.

All was fine until today, I needed that (already power and IDE ribbon
disconnected!) WD 40gb HD and took it out, and
here's where I'm sure the BSOD somehow came from. Whilst plugging the
external
leads back in, I connected the monitor 15pin D-sub to the onboard graphics
port instead of the AGP card ! I quickly realised what I'd done | shut down
| and connected onto the "proper" card but, nogo !
B & W DOS message at startup = "Windows could not start because the
following file is missing or corrupt:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM" ...I
think that's the one, just pinched it from an MS page !

BSOD every time. This board auto detects the presence of a card in the AGP
slot, so how this produced a problem eludes me, unless of course it was just
coincidence and my hive went BANG on shutdown or something like that. I
wonder if BSOD contributors could have been motherboard features
"Superboot," "Superbios Protect," Cache bios" and "Cache Video."

I tweaked and fiddled for ages, turned off all the above in bios - couldn't
boot in any of the [F5] dos screen modes - booting from the original XP Home
SP2 OEM (unflavoured) wouldn't let me in, i.e. "r" = BSOD ...and trying to
get that later choice of a repair install by threatening to install onto the
current C:\Windows [1] =BSOD. ...cleared CMOS ...again made sure all bios
caching was off = BSOD Booted using a full retail XP Home SP2 | [r] = BSOD

No data recovery needed, (Dad only uses it occasionally on the internet), so
I deleted the MBR and reinstalled.

Anyway, what a sh***y OS start up design, and totally useless fault
tolerance and recovery !!
....totally unable to get to dos prompt using the XP Home ed. SP2 cd !

regards, Richard

 

[Lester Stiefel]

Thanks muchly to Will Denny, S. Sengupta, usasma and Rock for your
responses, on my "Bad Pool Caller / 0x000000C2" post in XP General".
...which I now suspect was connected with conflicting VGA drivers...


Downstairs - Dads system box:-

Foxconn 760GXK8MC-S_RS
Skt754 2800 Sempron / 512mb pc2700 / 80gb Seagate
MX440 AGP card / WMP54g pci Linksys wireless card
LG Combo (dvd reader/cd rewriter)

...is the one that went BSOD with:-
*** STOP: 0x000000C2 (0x00000043, 0xC2264000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
...and I wonder if this is how it was caused ? ...

A couple of months ago when I assembled and installed this PC, I popped in a
spare 40gb WD hd as Slave to IDE0, and Ghosted C:\ onto it, and left it
disconnected in the box - to reduce noise. At that time it had a Bewan ADSL
pci modem in it. That was uninstalled and removed a couple of weeks ago
when I put a WMP54G into it. ...also relevant, if you bear with me for
few a seconds, is that initially the box was using the onboard graphics chip
and a couple of weeks later I ended up with a spare MX440 - so I popped that
into Dads PC.

All was fine until today, I needed that (already power and IDE ribbon
disconnected!) WD 40gb HD and took it out, and
here's where I'm sure the BSOD somehow came from. Whilst plugging the
external
leads back in, I connected the monitor 15pin D-sub to the onboard graphics
port instead of the AGP card ! I quickly realised what I'd done | shut down
| and connected onto the "proper" card but, nogo !
B & W DOS message at startup = "Windows could not start because the
following file is missing or corrupt:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM" ...I
think that's the one, just pinched it from an MS page !

BSOD every time. This board auto detects the presence of a card in the AGP
slot, so how this produced a problem eludes me, unless of course it was just
coincidence and my hive went BANG on shutdown or something like that. I
wonder if BSOD contributors could have been motherboard features
"Superboot," "Superbios Protect," Cache bios" and "Cache Video."

I tweaked and fiddled for ages, turned off all the above in bios - couldn't
boot in any of the [F5] dos screen modes - booting from the original XP Home
SP2 OEM (unflavoured) wouldn't let me in, i.e. "r" = BSOD ...and trying to
get that later choice of a repair install by threatening to install onto the
current C:\Windows [1] =BSOD. ...cleared CMOS ...again made sure all bios
caching was off = BSOD Booted using a full retail XP Home SP2 | [r] = BSOD

No data recovery needed, (Dad only uses it occasionally on the internet), so
I deleted the MBR and reinstalled.

Anyway, what a sh***y OS start up design, and totally useless fault
tolerance and recovery !!
....totally unable to get to dos prompt using the XP Home ed. SP2 cd !

regards, Richard

The recovery console doesn't do anything on it's own, just processes what
ever commands you type on the command line. Sounds like, had you booted
directly into windows it would have started.

Normal procedure to use external AGP card: Bios - disable
onboard graphics.
Same for external sound, when integrated sound is on mobo.

 

[RJK]

"Lester Stiefel" said :-
" Normal procedure to use external AGP card: Bios - disable
onboard graphics.
Same for external sound, when integrated sound is on mobo." <end quote>

...ummmm, on the Foxconn 760GXK8MC-S_RS there is no bios option to disable
onboard graphics, (I did mention that!) - one can set the shared system
memory for graphics to 0 but, as I mentioned earlier, this motherboard
auto-detects the presence of a card in the AGP slot.

My suspicion as to what happened was:- (as this is all academic now btw),
onboard graphics drivers were "uninstalled" prior to fitting a MX440 AGP
card and installing Nvidia drivers for it, ...then a couple of weeks later,
(after whipping out that already disconnected 2nd hd), I reconnected the
external leads and, (not thinking/mistakenly if you prefer), I connected the
monitor vga lead to the onboard graphics port instead of the one on the back
of the AGP card ...phew !

THIS, ...I suspect is where Windows got shitty, and very kindly set up a
graphics driver conflict for me !
.... if *** STOP: 0x000000C2 (0x00000043, 0xC2264000, 0x00000000,
0x00000000) / "bad pool caller"
has anything to do with graphics ! ...that's just me surmising.

....the main reason I posted this in the first place was to warn, (albeit in
my long winded and roundabout fashion), against erroneously reconnecting a
VGA lead to the onboard graphics port if a graphics card has been installed,
and particularly if onboard graphics were being used prior to "uninstalling"
that onboard driver and fitting an AGP graphics card and installing a driver
for that, ...if you see what I mean

regards, Richard


"

Thanks muchly to Will Denny, S. Sengupta, usasma and Rock for your
responses, on my "Bad Pool Caller / 0x000000C2" post in XP General".
...which I now suspect was connected with conflicting VGA drivers...


Downstairs - Dads system box:-

Foxconn 760GXK8MC-S_RS
Skt754 2800 Sempron / 512mb pc2700 / 80gb Seagate
MX440 AGP card / WMP54g pci Linksys wireless card
LG Combo (dvd reader/cd rewriter)

...is the one that went BSOD with:-
*** STOP: 0x000000C2 (0x00000043, 0xC2264000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
...and I wonder if this is how it was caused ? ...

A couple of months ago when I assembled and installed this PC, I popped
in a
spare 40gb WD hd as Slave to IDE0, and Ghosted C:\ onto it, and left it
disconnected in the box - to reduce noise. At that time it had a Bewan
ADSL
pci modem in it. That was uninstalled and removed a couple of weeks ago
when I put a WMP54G into it. ...also relevant, if you bear with me for
few a seconds, is that initially the box was using the onboard graphics
chip
and a couple of weeks later I ended up with a spare MX440 - so I popped
that
into Dads PC.

All was fine until today, I needed that (already power and IDE ribbon
disconnected!) WD 40gb HD and took it out, and
here's where I'm sure the BSOD somehow came from. Whilst plugging the
external
leads back in, I connected the monitor 15pin D-sub to the onboard
graphics
port instead of the AGP card ! I quickly realised what I'd done | shut
down
| and connected onto the "proper" card but, nogo !
B & W DOS message at startup = "Windows could not start because the
following file is missing or corrupt:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM" ...I
think that's the one, just pinched it from an MS page !

BSOD every time. This board auto detects the presence of a card in the
AGP
slot, so how this produced a problem eludes me, unless of course it was
just
coincidence and my hive went BANG on shutdown or something like that. I
wonder if BSOD contributors could have been motherboard features
"Superboot," "Superbios Protect," Cache bios" and "Cache Video."

I tweaked and fiddled for ages, turned off all the above in bios -
couldn't
boot in any of the [F5] dos screen modes - booting from the original XP
Home
SP2 OEM (unflavoured) wouldn't let me in, i.e. "r" = BSOD ...and trying
to
get that later choice of a repair install by threatening to install onto
the
current C:\Windows [1] =BSOD. ...cleared CMOS ...again made sure all
bios
caching was off = BSOD Booted using a full retail XP Home SP2 | [r] =
BSOD

No data recovery needed, (Dad only uses it occasionally on the internet),
so
I deleted the MBR and reinstalled.

Anyway, what a sh***y OS start up design, and totally useless fault
tolerance and recovery !!
....totally unable to get to dos prompt using the XP Home ed. SP2
cd !

regards, Richard

I think I've zeroed in on my problem. Something's wrong with my DVD/RW
drive. (note I also have a CD-R drive.) Out of desparation, I went to
the Boot Menu and chose option 6. 6 is "Boot to Utility Partition".
There, as I discovered, you can test all your hardware devices, and so
I did. The test paused with an error 0F00:136C while reading my DVD/RW
drive.

So I exited the test, went to Setup and deactivated my DVD/RW drive. I
left my CD-R drive active.

Lo and behold, when I then booted with the XP CD drive in the CD-R
drive, I *finally* got to the Recovery Console. I noted after I
entered R for recovery, it began copying several files and I guess
that's all it had to do, because the only thing I did on the Recovery
Console prompt was to type "exit". Immediately, Windows booted up like
the good ole days. Just to be sure, as a final check, I then removed
the XP CD and restarted again; yep Windows came up.

So I'm in business again.

A big thanks to everyone who contributed suggestions to help with my
dilemma; I have saved all your ideas as I have a feeling I may need to
refer to them in the future.

But... I've left my DVD/RW drive disabled. I'm not sure how to go
about fixing it. I still can't read from it. When I run diagnostics,
the full error message is: "Error Code 0F00:136C IDE device failed.
Blank media or no media present in optical drive." (Yes, I do put the
XP CD drive in it.) Anyone have any ideas on exactly what this message
means, and how to fix it?

Ed
The recovery console doesn't do anything on it's own, just processes
what ever commands you type on the command line. Sounds like, had you
booted directly into windows it would have started.

Normal procedure to use external AGP card: Bios - disable onboard
graphics.
Same for external sound, when integrated sound is on mobo.

--
Lester Stiefel
In Romans 1 there are qualities of Unregenerate man listed which describe
him in the last days.
Is your quality found on this list??