Windows XP won't start

[Guest]

My operating system is Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 (including
Service Pack 2) and it is OEM. It was installed in June 2005 and had been
operating fine until two days ago.

Two days ago the computer rebooted itself unexpectantly and went into a
reboot loop. Each time it would reach the screen where it is starting
Windows, would not complete and then reboot.

I searched some forums on the internet regarding this problem and
implemented the advice to do a "dirty" reinstal using the Windows XP CD. As
this procedure would ensure the retention of my data on the hard drive. When
going through the reinstal of the software it reached the stage where it need
to reboot and would then come up with the message "Windoows need to start
again" and went into a reboot cycle again. I ejected the CD and restarted
the reinstall again and the following message now displays when booting from
the CD;

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt

/Windows/system32/config/system

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the
original Setup CD-ROM. Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair."

I did not take this advice as I know that be doing this it formats the hard
drive and I would loose my data.

I accessed the Windows XP Recovery Console and ran chkdsk /r which seemed to
repair some files. On rebooting the system I again got the above message of
the file being missing or corrupted.....back to where I started.

I have removed the hard drive and had a look at it on another computer and
all my data and system files are still there and I have copied them all onto
a removable/portable hard drive.

My questions are;

Can I repair my currently installed Windows XP without formating the hard
drive and losing my data?

If I have to format the disk and install Windows XP again, how do I back up
my files for Microsoft Outlook messages and address book; Internet Explorer
connections; reinstall my other software on my hard drive (as some of them
were installed by the OEM installer/builder)?

 

[Ricky]

This may help..
How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from
starting
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us

 

[AJR]

Try the following:

1. Boot from the XP CD
2. Ignore the "offer" to use the Recovery Console and continue
3. Setup continues and will notify you that it has found a Windows
installation and will list it
4. You will be asked if if you want to repair or continue with new
install.
5. Select repair
6. Setup will continue and perform an upgrade installation
preserving data and applications

When OS functions - Right click My computer and select properties - select
advanced tab - select settings in Startup and Recovery section - uncheck
Automatically Restart.
Doing so - XP will not continually try rebooting but will stop (usually
BSOD) and in most cases post an error message which may assist in
troubleshooting.

 

[Guest]

I started the manual steps to recover a corrupted registry that prevents
Windows from starting and got to the forth entry line:

copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak

which came back with "the system cannot find the file specified"

That is where I stopped. What can I do now?

Is it because my version was OEM, as in the instructions for this help file
it states "Do not use the procedure taht is described in this article if your
computer has an OEM intstalled operaqting system. The system hive on OEM
installations creates passwords and user accounts that did not exist
previously. If you use the procedure taht is described in this article, you
may not be able to log back into the recovery console to restore the original
registry hives."

 

[Guest]

I did this process originally and got to the situation where it went into a
loop of having to restart windows setup. At that stage I took the disk out
and tried again and now it does not offer me that option any more. It goes
straight to the screen where it identifies the partition size, used amount
and free space. On this screen it only offers to install windows again which
would format my hard drive and erase my data (basically performing a "clean"
install).

don't know where to go from here.......