Need help recovering from system crash.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robbie Hatley
  • Start date Start date
R

Robbie Hatley

Greetings, group. Got a couple questions for you. This message is
rather lengthy, though, so as a courtesy to those who are pressed for
time, i'll start with a "short version", then move on to the details.

SHORT VERSION:

My Win2K crashed (BSOD "can't find system32\config\system")
and had to be reinstalled. I put the new installation in a new folder to
avoid overwriting stuff. Is there a way to import software installations,
software customizations, and file-type associations from my old registry
to my new? And what might have caused Windows to stop being able
to see system32\config\system? And would it have been better if I had
reinstalled Win2K on top of my old installation instead of making a new?
Thanks in advance for your help.


~~~ If pressed for time, stop reading here. Thanks, and good day. ~~~


Now, as a courtesy to those who would say "how can i help you if
you're so vague? Give me the details!", I'll give the long version:

LONG VERSION:

Saturday afternoon my Windows 2000 crashed. Wouldn't restart after
shutdown, gave me the message "Windows cannot find the file
C:\WINNT\system32\config\systemr options press F8". [sic]

I tried checking the disk with chkdsk called from emergency repair
console, launched from original Win2K CD. It found and fixed one
or more problems, but on reboot still died "Windows cannot find
the file C:\WINNT\system32\config\systemr options press F8". [sic]
(Got to love those unceremonious palimpsests, no?)

So I tried the "Emergency Repair Process" from the Win2K CD.
It apparently fixed the "system32\config\system" problem, because
on reboot, windows now got past the initial black "F8" screen, into
the sky-blue screen, but about 20 seconds into the boot process,
it went BSOD and stopped with message "Windows cannot find driver
C:\WINNT\drivers\redbook.sys". (CD ROM driver?)

Ironically, both the file "C:\WINNT\system32\config\system" and the
file "C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\redbook.sys" are there! They exist,
but windows can't "find" them (whatever the hell *that* means).

So I was reduced to having to re-install windows. I had the brutally
loose/loose choice of:
1. Overwriting the original operating system, possibly maintaining
software installations but loosing contents of "My Documents"
(according to the on-screen instructions).
2. Making a new installation, retaining documents, but LOSING all of
the following: colors, fonts, cursors, sound-schemes, start menu,
toolbars, software installations, software customizations,
email acounts, usenet accounts, newsgroups subscription lists,
newsgroup header downloads and read/unread markings, OE mail
rules (spam filters), IE favorites, IE history, IE blue/purple "visited"
URL indicators, etc, etc, etc.

Perhaps unwisely, I chose option 2. It took me 11 hours to troubleshoot
this problem, make my failed attempts to repair it using non-drastic
means, reinstall Windows 2000, download and install about 60 different
Windows updates, reinstall my email accounts, and reinstall one or two
of my most-used pieces of software. It will probably take me another
15-20 hours to reinstall all the remaining software and get everything
configured back the way it was. Basically about a week out of my life
down the toilet.

QUESTION #1 TO GROUP:
The situation I'm faced with now is: is there any way to "import" contents
from my old registry to my new registry? I'm especially interested in:
1. software installations (would save dozens of hours of reinstall time)
2. software customizations (dozens more hours saved)
3. file-type associations (these were heavily customized)
Is there any way to import this information from an old registry into a
current registry?

QUESTION #2 TO GROUP:
Anyone have a guess as to why my Windows 2000 suddenly stopped being
able to "find" registry and driver files which are right there in plain sight?
I'd like to be able to stop this from happening again.

QUESTION #3 TO GROUP:
Should I have reinstalled Windows 2000 on top of the old installation?
What do you lose if you do that? Do you retain software installations,
Internet accounts, start menu, OE mail rules, IE favorites and history, etc?
If this is the better choice, I'll do it this way the next time I have to
reinstall Windows 2000 on a computer.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
 
If the system hive is corrupt, and assuming you already tried LKG (F8 and
choose Last Known Good), It may be possible to rename the system hive found
in
%systemroot%\system32\config\system
to system.old
then rename
%systemroot%\system32\config\system.alt
to
%systemroot%\system32\config\system

You can also try using the most recent backup found in
%systemroot%\repair\regback

If that fails you haven't much choice but to copy/ use the
original-as-installed system hive from
%systemroot%\repair\system
to
%systemroot%\system32\config\system
You'll need to reinstall the device drivers for any hardware added since the
original OS install.

To start the Recovery Console, start the computer from the Windows 2000
Setup CD or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks. If you do not have Setup
floppy disks and your computer cannot start from the Windows 2000 Setup CD,
use another Windows 2000-based computer to create the Setup floppy disks. At
the "Welcome to Setup" screen. Press F10 or R to repair a Windows 2000
installation, and then press C to use the Recovery Console. The Recovery
Console then prompts you for the administrator password. If you do not have
the correct password, Recovery Console does not allow access to the
computer. If an incorrect password is entered three times, the Recovery
Console quits and restarts the computer. Note If the registry is corrupted
or missing or no valid installations are found, the Recovery Console starts
in the root of the startup volume without requiring a password. You cannot
access any folders, but you can carry out commands such as chkdsk, fixboot,
and fixmbr for limited disk repairs. Once the password has been validated,
you have full access to the Recovery Console, but limited access to the hard
disk. You can only access the following folders on your computer: drive
root, %systemroot% or %windir%


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

Robbie Hatley said:
Greetings, group. Got a couple questions for you. This message is
rather lengthy, though, so as a courtesy to those who are pressed for
time, i'll start with a "short version", then move on to the details.

SHORT VERSION:

My Win2K crashed (BSOD "can't find system32\config\system")
and had to be reinstalled. I put the new installation in a new folder to
avoid overwriting stuff. Is there a way to import software installations,
software customizations, and file-type associations from my old registry
to my new? And what might have caused Windows to stop being able
to see system32\config\system? And would it have been better if I had
reinstalled Win2K on top of my old installation instead of making a new?
Thanks in advance for your help.


~~~ If pressed for time, stop reading here. Thanks, and good day. ~~~


Now, as a courtesy to those who would say "how can i help you if
you're so vague? Give me the details!", I'll give the long version:

LONG VERSION:

Saturday afternoon my Windows 2000 crashed. Wouldn't restart after
shutdown, gave me the message "Windows cannot find the file
C:\WINNT\system32\config\systemr options press F8". [sic]

I tried checking the disk with chkdsk called from emergency repair
console, launched from original Win2K CD. It found and fixed one
or more problems, but on reboot still died "Windows cannot find
the file C:\WINNT\system32\config\systemr options press F8". [sic]
(Got to love those unceremonious palimpsests, no?)

So I tried the "Emergency Repair Process" from the Win2K CD.
It apparently fixed the "system32\config\system" problem, because
on reboot, windows now got past the initial black "F8" screen, into
the sky-blue screen, but about 20 seconds into the boot process,
it went BSOD and stopped with message "Windows cannot find driver
C:\WINNT\drivers\redbook.sys". (CD ROM driver?)

Ironically, both the file "C:\WINNT\system32\config\system" and the
file "C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\redbook.sys" are there! They exist,
but windows can't "find" them (whatever the hell *that* means).

So I was reduced to having to re-install windows. I had the brutally
loose/loose choice of:
1. Overwriting the original operating system, possibly maintaining
software installations but loosing contents of "My Documents"
(according to the on-screen instructions).
2. Making a new installation, retaining documents, but LOSING all of
the following: colors, fonts, cursors, sound-schemes, start menu,
toolbars, software installations, software customizations,
email acounts, usenet accounts, newsgroups subscription lists,
newsgroup header downloads and read/unread markings, OE mail
rules (spam filters), IE favorites, IE history, IE blue/purple
"visited"
URL indicators, etc, etc, etc.

Perhaps unwisely, I chose option 2. It took me 11 hours to troubleshoot
this problem, make my failed attempts to repair it using non-drastic
means, reinstall Windows 2000, download and install about 60 different
Windows updates, reinstall my email accounts, and reinstall one or two
of my most-used pieces of software. It will probably take me another
15-20 hours to reinstall all the remaining software and get everything
configured back the way it was. Basically about a week out of my life
down the toilet.

QUESTION #1 TO GROUP:
The situation I'm faced with now is: is there any way to "import" contents
from my old registry to my new registry? I'm especially interested in:
1. software installations (would save dozens of hours of reinstall time)
2. software customizations (dozens more hours saved)
3. file-type associations (these were heavily customized)
Is there any way to import this information from an old registry into a
current registry?

QUESTION #2 TO GROUP:
Anyone have a guess as to why my Windows 2000 suddenly stopped being
able to "find" registry and driver files which are right there in plain
sight?
I'd like to be able to stop this from happening again.

QUESTION #3 TO GROUP:
Should I have reinstalled Windows 2000 on top of the old installation?
What do you lose if you do that? Do you retain software installations,
Internet accounts, start menu, OE mail rules, IE favorites and history,
etc?
If this is the better choice, I'll do it this way the next time I have to
reinstall Windows 2000 on a computer.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

--
Cheers,
Robbie Hatley
lonewolf aatt well dott com
www dott well dott com slant user slant lonewolf slant
Click to expand...
 
Dave Patrick said:
If the system hive is corrupt, and assuming you already tried LKG (F8 and
choose Last Known Good),
Click to expand...

Yep, tried that. Windows still couldn't "find" system32\config\system.
So I ran the "Emergency Repair" thingy. Windows could then find
"system", but now it couldn't find "redbook.sys". So I gave up and
did a fresh installation in "C:\Windows". (The original installation
was in "C:\WINNT".)
You can also try using the most recent backup found in
%systemroot%\repair\regback
Click to expand...

No such folder in either my new or old installations. There's a file
called "system" in %systemroot%\repair, but it's several years old.
It may be possible to rename the system hive found in
%systemroot%\system32\config\system
to system.old
then rename
%systemroot%\system32\config\system.alt
to
%systemroot%\system32\config\system
Click to expand...

Interesting. Thanks for the tip! I didn't know about that. I saw the
file "system.alt" but I didn't know what it was. If I'd known, I'd have
tried switching to a backup system hive before resorting to complete
re-install.

(Question: why is system.alt about 3 times larger than system?
And what is the difference between system.alt and system.sav?)

I suppose I could try copying the system hive from
C:\WINNT\system32\config\system.alt
to
C:\Windows\system32\config\system
(after renaming the new system to "systemWindows" in case this attempt
fails and has to be reversed.) It's tempting.

Even more tempting is to do the same with the "software" hive, so that
I don't have to re-install all of my software. (Do-able, but time consuming.)

Thanks for the info!
 
Robbie Hatley said:
Yep, tried that. Windows still couldn't "find" system32\config\system.
So I ran the "Emergency Repair" thingy. Windows could then find
"system", but now it couldn't find "redbook.sys". So I gave up and
did a fresh installation in "C:\Windows". (The original installation
was in "C:\WINNT".)


No such folder in either my new or old installations. There's a file
called "system" in %systemroot%\repair, but it's several years old.
Click to expand...
*** This just means the registry was never backed up on this machine.


Interesting. Thanks for the tip! I didn't know about that. I saw the
file "system.alt" but I didn't know what it was. If I'd known, I'd have
tried switching to a backup system hive before resorting to complete
re-install.

(Question: why is system.alt about 3 times larger than system?
Click to expand...
*** Might be the copy your looking for. system is presumably from the time
of the original installation.

And what is the difference between system.alt and system.sav?)
Click to expand...
*** Setup has two stages: text mode and graphics mode. The hive is copied to
a .sav file after the text-mode stage of setup to protect it from errors
that might occur if the graphics-mode stage of setup fails. If setup fails
during the graphics-mode stage, only the graphics-mode stage is repeated
when the computer is restarted; the .sav file is used to restore the hive
data. So those *.sav files should have had a date stamp of when you
installed the OS and would be of no use in this case.

I suppose I could try copying the system hive from
C:\WINNT\system32\config\system.alt
to
C:\Windows\system32\config\system
(after renaming the new system to "systemWindows" in case this attempt
fails and has to be reversed.) It's tempting.
Click to expand...
*** Yes, if you still have a copy of it from immediately after the failure.

Even more tempting is to do the same with the "software" hive, so that
I don't have to re-install all of my software. (Do-able, but time
consuming.)
Click to expand...
*** This probably won't be very productive since there are so many
references and registrations that have direct pointers to the original
locations.


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
 
Dave said:
This [copying backup software hive to new windows installation] probably
won't be very productive since there are so many references and registrations
that have direct pointers to the original locations.
Click to expand...

Ouch. I didn't think of that, but if there's anything that points directly to
"C:\WINNT" as opposed to "%systemroot%" (say, for DLL files related to
apps, or for hive-to-hive links), that wouldn't work because the new Windows
dir is "C:\Windows". Same would apply to any other hive as well, I imagine.

I think I'll just do it the long way: reinstall all software and settings manually.
More time-wastey, but safer, at this point. The critical stuff is already
installed, and the remainder can be done a little at a time over next few
weeks.

On the plus side, my Windows now works faster and better. For one thing,
certain Windows updates relating to .NET and SQL that always failed before,
ran fine after Windows clean reinstall.

But if I ever need to re-install Windows again due to registry corruption or
system file corruption, I'll reinstall on top of the old Windows folder (after
backing-up the Windows and Docs-and-Sttngs folders), instead of making
a whole new installation. Only if that FAILS, would I go to the extreme of
installing to a new location.

I still don't know why my Windows died in the first place. It was so odd...
Windows couldn't even FIND %systemroot%\config\system . It wasn't
missing, and yet Windows couldn't see it. After running the emergency
repair program on my original CD, Windows could now see config\system,
but it couldn't see "redbook.sys". That's when I gave up and went for
the full reinstall. I'm thinking the "loader" part of Windows (ntloader?
configuration manager?) got corrupted.

Anyway, thanks for the information.
 
Dave said:
Sounds like file system corruption.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... My C: drive is a 25GB partition, about 90% full, with a 512-byte
cluster size. I wonder if the MFT over-flowed its preallocated boundary
and became fragmented? If so, could that impact the ability of Windows
to find its registry hives, drivers, etc during boot-up?

I could try using Partition Magic to change the cluster size from 512 bytes
to 4096 bytes. Then run Symantec's defragmenter (which, unlike the MS
defragmenter, cuts old crud from the MFT). Wastes a little more space,
but might make for less chance of MFT fragmention. Do you think that
would be advisible?
 
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