Windows file missing or corrupt

[Larry L. Hegler]

My Brother in-law has an HP Pavilion. Twice now he has
had Windows XP Home Edition refuse to start and his
computer would only display the following
message: "Windows could not start due to following file
missing or corrupt \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM". This
has happened twice in the last three months. Has any one
seen this message before and what is causing the file to
become missing or corrupt? I have had to restore Windows
XP twice so far. We would really appreciate any info.

 

[adrian]

hi,
I just encountered the same problem few days ago after I installed the
win2000 adv server. And I've asked around in this newsgroup, someone told me
that the system boot files have been overwritten, they suggest me to boot
into recovery console, and copy the ntldr and ntdetect.com from the I386
folder into the root of the boot partition and then type bootcfg /rebuild.
Actually, I've tried that, but it doesn't seem to work.... My OS still
waiting for me to save it ^^, I can't reinstall the OS since there's lots of
important stuff inside.
Anyway, if I find out the solution, i will come back to you.

Good luck.
Adrian

 

[Master]

You all have tried a repair install?

Maybe even a chkdsk in the Safe Mode/Console might work.

 

[adrian]

Yes, i've tried everything, actually what does the repair function does? I
used that everytime my OS crash, but it fails everytime.... And I cant even
boot into safe mode, so can't run chkdsk....

Adrian

 

[Ron Rector]

Try this article:

How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry That Prevents
Windows XP from Starting

http://tinyurl.com/e4nv

 

[nutts4cracker]

Hi,
Yes the Article "How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry
That Prevents Windows XP from Starting" also available at
http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=307545 is the bast
solution to your problem. But it is strongly recommended
that you find the reason to the problem. So get the
hardware.
The Windows Registry is made up of Five parts, also
called the five Hives. These five hives are System,
Software, Default, Security and Sam. As per the error
message you gave in which "\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32
\CONFIG\SYSTEM" was corrupt or missing. This Hive stores
the configuration of your system and also includes the
hardware configuration. So get all your hardware checked.
If any device is not working properly uninstall it and
install the latest drivers for that hardware. Also
download the latest Virus Definations for your antivirus
program from the web and then do a full system scan for
any viruses. This should solve your problem.

Best of Luck,
nutts4cracker

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

I can verify from personal experience that this method works:

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

To investigate the root cause(s) of the problem:

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


Bruce Chambers

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[Lori Ann Kuiper]

I received the exact same error message about 1 month ago. I tried
everything to get back in to Windows, but all my attemps failed and I ended
up reloading Windows and losing all my info which cost me dearly. If you do
find out anything on what caused this error, or how to correct it, please
let me know--just in case it happens again!

The only thing I know is that the problem occurred after I started using the
Nvidia desktop manager to manage different profiles for different users.
Not for sure if this was the cause or not.