XP Won't Boot

[stockdam]

A relative gave me a newish laptop which won't boot. It has been
working ok for several months.

It's running XP but I don't know which version.

When booting it gives the following error.....


STOP C0000218 Registry File Failure....The registry cannot load the
hive \systemroot\system32\config\software


It won't boot to safe mode.

I'm guessing that it's a registry problem.

To be sure I ran a memory test and everything was ok.

I used EBCD and did a disk test - it showed a bad sector under
windows/system32/config/software ... I didn't let EBCD repair it. All
other sectors were ok.

I tried using my XP CD to repair windows but when it asks for the
administrator password I couldn't proceed as I didn't know the
password. I used the password reset tool in EBCD and reset the admin
password to blank but that didn't solve it - recover still said I was
using the wrong password (I'm using an XP Pro CD and his laptop uses
Home but I don't think this matters).

I went to a microsoft site http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308402

and it tells you what to do if the admin password is refused even if
it's blank. Basically it provides 6 floppy boot discs - why floppy
discs and no CDrom? Well the laptop doesn't have a floppy drive so this
avenue won't work. Should I try to create a boot CD with these?

I went back to my windows CD and went to reinstall windows - it says a
previous version is already installed. It wouldn't provide the option
to repair it though.

I also used the NTFS file manager in EBCD but it wouldn't show the
harddrive - does this mean the hardrive is faulty or the NTFS file
system is faulty?

Can I recover this situation without reformatting the harddrive? I
can't get into a command prompt to copy or rename any files.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

First try to recover from the registry issue as outlined in the following
Knowledge Base Article:
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;Q307545

If that fails to resolve it, you should try a repair install. When you
first tried it, you went to the recovery console. You need to go past the
first repair option as that one takes you to the recovery console; follow
the steps below for a repair install:
NOTE, while a repair install should leave your data files intact, if
something goes wrong during the repair install, you may be forced to start
over and do a clean install of XP. If you don't have your data backed up,
you would lose your data should that eventuality occur.

Assuming your system is set to boot from the CD-ROM drive and you have an
actual XP CD as opposed to a recovery CD, boot with the XP
CD in the drive and perform a repair install as outlined below. If the
system isn't set to boot from the CD or you are not sure, you need to enter
the system's BIOS. When you boot the system, the first screen usually has
instructions that if you wish to enter set press a specific key, when you
see that, do so. Then you will have to navigate to the boot sequence, if
the CD-ROM drive is not first line, set it first in the boot sequence. Save
your settings and exit with the XP CD in the drive. The system will reboot.

When the system boots, a few screens into the process you may see a message
instructing you
to hit any key in order to boot from the CD along with a countdown. When
you see this be sure to
hit a key on the keyboard, if you miss this instruction and the system fails
to boot from the CD, it's too
late, you'll need to reboot and try again.

Once you have pressed a key, setup should begin. You will see a reference
asking if you need to load special drivers and another notice that if you
wish to begin the ASR (Automatic Recovery Console) depress F2. Just let
setup run past all of that. It will continue to load files and drivers.

Then it will bring you to a screen. Eventually, you will come to a screen
with the option to (1) setup Windows or (2) Repair Windows Installation
using the Recovery console. ***The selection you want at this screen is
"Setup Windows,"
NOT "Repair Windows Installation.

The first option, to setup Windows is the one you want and requires you to
press enter. When asked, press F8 to accept the end user agreement. Setup
will then search for previous versions of Windows. Upon finding your
version, it will ask if you wish to Repair your current installation or
install fresh. Press R, that will run a repair installation. From there
on, follow the screens.

Note, in some cases, you won't receive the repair option, only an option to
reinstall. We have discovered that sometimes this is caused by damaged
boot.ini file that can be repaired as follows and also note, in the
instructions, "K" refers to the CD drive in which you have placed the XP CD,
replace that drive letter with the appropriate letter on your system, "K" is
simply an example.

Reboot, this time taking the immediate R option (this is the section I told
you to skip above. In this case, you will need to get to the Recovery
Console to perform the function below), and if the CD letter is say K: give
these commands

COPY K:\i386\ntldr C:
COPY K:\i386\ntdetect.com C:
(two other files needed - just in case)
ATTRIB -H -R -S C:\boot.ini
DEL C:\boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild

Once you've completed this function, reboot and see if you can access XP as
sometimes, the problem is the damaged boot.ini. If you still cannot access
XP, then reboot and re-run the repair install instructions at the beginning
of this message.

If you only have a recovery CD, your options are quite limited. You can
either purchase a retail version of XP which will allow you to perform the
above
among other tools and options it has or you can run your system recovery
routine with the Recovery CD which will likely wipe your drive, deleting all
files but will restore your setup to factory fresh condition.

Note, whether or not any of the above works, given that you found a bad
sector on the hard drive, it would be advisable to check the hard drive
manufacturer's website for their diagnostic tools, make note of their
instructions for creating their tools disk, download their diagnostic tools,
create the disk and run the diagnostic.

 

[stockdam]

Thanks for the reply Michael but I've tried most of that already.

Firstly let me restate that the laptop was working and that the Xp Home
splashscreen comes up so XP was working ok until something happened....

I can't use the first Microsoft article you quoted becuse the admin
password doesn't work..........the pC was bought from a well known
electrical retail chain - they probably have cloned the hard-drives so
I'm not sure why the admin password isn't blank.


I did try to install windows as you said but here's what happens.....

I get the options to setup windows XP or repair and I selected setup
(new install). I then press F8 to accept the license. It then searches
for a previous version of windows but it doesn't seem to find any - the
options I get are to setup windows or to create or delete a partition.
Does this mean it can't find the old version of XP or is it because my
disc is a XP Pro version and his is XP Home? So it doesn't have a
reinstall option or a repair option so I quit at this stage. The only
disc he got with the PC was a recovery one which as you said will
delete the hard-drive - I don't want to do that.

I then tried to use the rcovery console - it found a windows
installation in c:\windows so I assume it scanned the harddive and
found a good installation (good??). I then selected this installation
and then it asks for the stupid administrator password - this is blank
so I hit return but it says wrong password........so I can't go any
further. I can't see the harddrive to alter any files.

Is the problem that Windows is totally corrupted, or is it a registery
problem or do I need to use a copy of XP home and try to reinstall?

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

The problem is that what is on the hard drive is an OEM version and the disk
you have is retail.

When you say you can't see the files, how did you try to see the files? If
you used a DOS boot disk, it won't see anything because the file system is
NTFS.

Since you can't repair, the next step will require third party software such
as an XP compatible version of Partition Magic or System Commander assuming
you wish to save the original setup or you have files you wish to copy from
that setup. Since it belonged to someone else, personally, I'd want to do a
clean install since you have no idea what might be on the setup that may
either be causing this problem or some future problem. Nonetheless, you
could use third party software to setup a separate partition on the hard
drive, install your retail version of XP to that partition, then copy the
files you wish to save from the previous setup to the new install.

 

[stockdam]

So if he has an OEM version then it sounds like it's difficult to
recover - they provide a recover disk but it wants to reformat the hard
drive.

I eventually used a PE disk to boot the computer and read the files. I
replaced the windows/system32/config/software with one in the
windows\repair folder and that allowed the computer to reboot. I can
now recover the files he needs (and I'll tell him not to put so many
important files on a PC with no backup strategy.

The next problem - since it's an OEM install the PC didn't come with an
XP CD other then the recover one (what's on that?). I really would like
to reinstall XP at some stage.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

When all you have is a recovery disk, the only way to reinstall is to run
the recovery routine and that usually formats the drive and starts over. If
you can get his data files off of the drive, he will at least be backed up
with a recovery disk, you are limited to whatever options they offer and
usually that is simply to run the routine and that usually restores the
original image and puts the system back in the condition it was when
purchased.

 

[Brian S. Craigie]

If the hdd has a bad sector, chances are it will happen again.
Recommend urgently (before much changes on the drive) taking out the hdd
and putting it in a PC (you can get a 3.5" to 2.5" adaptor for a very
small outlay) then use partition magic to copy the hard disk over to a
partition on another [spare] drive. Then purchase a new drive and copy
it back onto the new drive. Only then should you try to repair the O/S.
I know bad sectors should be marked out, but I think once you see one,
that's the start of the decline of the drive.

If you repair PCs/Laptops for a living, that's a handy adaptor/setup to
have. If you don't, it might be cheaper to get a repair shop to do it
[copy the hard disk to a new one] for you.

You can avail yourself of a BartPE (see http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/) CD
to enable you to get a command line to copy and move files etc. You may
then be able to copy the software file backup from
c:\windows\repair\software to c:\windows\system32\config\software (back
it up first though somewhere). Might get you going. You may need to
also do the other registry files. See:

http://www.digitalwebcast.com/2002/03_mar/tutorials/cw_boot_toot2.htm

(for recovery console in the above document, you can substitute BartPE
CD command line)

Depending on how old the files in the repair folder are, and whether
system recovery was turned on you may need to reinstall some software,
and put SP2 on to tidy things up, but you may not have much choice if
the software part of the registry is irretrievable/corrupt anyway.

HTH.

Brian

 

[Bob Eyster]

You said you found a bad sector on the HDD but did not repair it. Part of
the registry may be on that sector and will not load, which the error
message stated.

Try fixing the bad sector?


Bob Eyster