XP won't boot - missing files - questions about XP disk - thanks

[J-miami]

Hi,

My Toshiba laptop won't boot into Windows anymore. When I try to boot
Windows I get a black screen with the message:

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or
corrupt \windows\system32\config\system"

So I went online and found lots of information about how to fix it such
as http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us. I followed all the
directions but it didn't work. The main point of what they said was to
copy the following:
copy C:\windows\repair\system C:\windows\system32\config\system.

That didn't work because it said the file (directory?) doesn't exist in
my repair directory (I don't know why). "System" doesn't exist in
either directory anymore.

My original Toshiba "recovery disks" don't give me any options to just
reinstall Windows -- I would have to reformat the entire drive which I
don't want to do because I know my files are ok (I have viewed them on
the drive with a Knoppix Linux that boots from the CD drive).

I can borrow a friends XP Pro SP1 disk -- is there anything I can do
with that to just repair my one file? Or to reinstall Windows XP over
my old installation without destroying my data just so that I can back
it up and then reinstall with my Toshiba XP disk? (My current OS is XP
Home SP2).

Thanks in advance for any help anyone might be able to provide.

Josh

 

[Guest]

if your original xp disk is "SP1".. u cannot run a repair on your OS as
windows sees it as an older version...find some1 who has A "winxp SP2" disk
and u can boot from that and at the start up screen ..click "repair windows
xp "...it will repair your OS files and save all other files..i've had to do
it a few times lol..

 

[kurttrail]

if your original xp disk is "SP1".. u cannot run a repair on your OS
as windows sees it as an older version...find some1 who has A "winxp
SP2" disk and u can boot from that and at the start up screen ..click
"repair windows xp "...it will repair your OS files and save all
other files..i've had to do it a few times lol..

Yeah but if his friends copy is a retail copy of XP then the Product Key
that came with the laptop won't work, and will have to the retail key to
do the repair install, and activate it. While this can be done, they'll
have problems when validation becomes mandatory.

And the other bit of misinformation is that you can do a repair install
with pre-SP2 media on a SP2 installation. It will set it back to
whatever version the CD is and all updates will need to be reloaded.


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Self-anointed Moderator
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[Guest]

i stand corrected!!

do this
boot from winxp disk
on the first screen press enter
then it will ask u to press f8 to accept agreement press f8
on the next screen press R for repair
it will then auto run and re-install but save all your files

 

[J-miami]

Hi Kurt,

Are you saying that I can take my friend's XP Pro SP1 disk and install
that over my XP Home SP2 installation and not erase my files or program
data (such as Outlook folders)?

I don't intend to keep my friend's XP installation on my computer. I
just need to be able to boot Windows to get all my files off (including
export all of my Outlook folders). Then I will reformat the drive with
my original Toshiba recovery disks.

Thanks to everyone for their replies to my post.

 

[J-miami]

Hi,

Are you saying that I can take an XP Pro SP1 disk and use it to
re-install my OS over my XP Home SP2 installation without erasing my
data? I just want to make sure before I do this experiement with my
data.

Thanks for replying to my original post.

Josh

 

[kurttrail]

Hi Kurt,

Are you saying that I can take my friend's XP Pro SP1 disk and install
that over my XP Home SP2 installation and not erase my files or
program data (such as Outlook folders)?

I don't intend to keep my friend's XP installation on my computer. I
just need to be able to boot Windows to get all my files off
(including export all of my Outlook folders). Then I will reformat
the drive with my original Toshiba recovery disks.

Thanks to everyone for their replies to my post.

Yes. Follow the instructions at the link below.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm


--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"