windows will not start,error messeage is windows\system32\config\system is
missing or currupt.is there any way of fixing this problem without doing a
repair from the disk.i have service pack 3 installed.i do have access to
another hard drive on my pc that has a working windows.is there any way of
useing that windows to eccess the windows on my other partition and fix the
problem?
Hi twayne
yes, there is, provided you can see files and folders on the sick disk
from the good one, were running System Restore on the disk that now has
problems and have restore points. You can manually "fish out" a good
copy of the corrupted file and replace it, which should allow you to get
into Windows and do a proper restore.
This looks a bit long and involved but most of the work is in actually
locating the proper file, then it's just a case of copying and renaming.
I've done this successfully a good few times and it doesn't do anything
irreversible, so it's well worth a try.
1) Log in to the working Windows disk and browse to the System Volume
Information folder off the root of the non-booting disk. This is
normally a hidden folder so depending on the settings you normally use
you might have to go to Folder Options | View first and choose Show
Hidden Files and Folders and Display the Contents of System Folders.
2) You should see a subfolder called "restore" followed by a long series
of letters and numbers in curly brackets. Open this and you should see a
number of folders called "RP" followed by a number. These are your
restore points.
It's probably safest to go back a couple of days. Choose a restore point
from around that time and open it. Look for a subfolder called
"snapshot" (not all my restore points include this, so you might have to
try a couple before you find it).
3) Inside the snapshot folder you will see copies of your registry
files. The one you want is called _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM. Copy this
file to the Windows\System32\config folder.
Inside Windows\System32\config you'll see a file called SYSTEM (no
extension). Rename this to something like SYSTEM.OLD or SYSTEM.BAD.
Then rename the file you copied (_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM) to SYSTEM.
Now try booting from the problem disk again and with a bit of luck
Windows will load. if it does, I'd strongly recommend you run a full
System Restore now, using a restore point from a couple of days before
the problem started -- this is because what you just did replaced only
one part of the registry.
I really hope this helps you. Once everything's working again may I
suggest you consider installing ERUNT, a wonderful free utility that
will back up and restore your registry so you never have to go through
this again? You can get it here
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
and I can't recommend it highly enough:
Good luck!
