windows/system32/config/system flie corrupt or missing...

[Guest]

on my 80 gig hard drive. I was unable to repair the file by booting from the
windows XP cd as the computer suggested. My 'easy' solution was to upgrade
to a 230 gig drive and just transfer the files i needed. The new hard drive
is up and going, XP is in and all the programs are updated etc. I did a
transfer with the Western Digital file transfer wizzard only to find the
files in the 'my documents' folder were still password protected and
inaccessible. (My other files were just a click to access.) Depending on
which program I use to try to access it, I get a range of errors from file
not accessible to 'see your system adminisrtator' I even was asked for my
password to no avail. Booting from the new drive I was still unable to
repair, copy past or replace the corrupt file on the old drive. Now when I
try to boot from the old drive it asks me to INSTALL windows... it doesn't
even recognize windows is on there. I have tried two different 'file
recovery' programs but those seem to focus of recovering deleted files. I
have always heard its nearly impossible to erase info and files from a hard
drive unless they are over written... and then they could still be recovered.

 

[Malke]

on my 80 gig hard drive. I was unable to repair the file by booting
from the
windows XP cd as the computer suggested. My 'easy' solution was to
upgrade
to a 230 gig drive and just transfer the files i needed. The new hard
drive
is up and going, XP is in and all the programs are updated etc. I did
a transfer with the Western Digital file transfer wizzard only to find
the
files in the 'my documents' folder were still password protected and
inaccessible. (My other files were just a click to access.)
Depending on which program I use to try to access it, I get a range of
errors from file
not accessible to 'see your system adminisrtator' I even was asked
for my password to no avail. Booting from the new drive I was still

unable
(snip)

An easy way to retrieve Windows files is to boot with Knoppix, a Linux
distro on a live cd. You will need a computer with two cd drives, one
of which is a cd/dvd-rw. To get Knoppix, you need a computer with a
fast Internet connection and third-party burning software. Download the
Knoppix .iso from www.knoppix.net and create your bootable cd. Then
boot with it and it will be able to see the Windows files. Use the K3b
burning program to burn the files to cd/dvd-r's.

Malke