Win XP Home won't boot

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greg Scarff
  • Start date Start date
G

Greg Scarff

This is what I'm getting:

============
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
orogopnal Setup CD-Rom.
Select 'r' at the first screen to repair.
============


When I try to repair it doesn't work. Can I pull this fill from another PC
and copy it to this one? Will that work?

Greg
 
Greg.

I've seen this one a couple of times before... I've always managed to fix
it - although I can't guarantee the validity of this suggestion, or that it
won't mess up your computer but this has worked for me.

When the error message comes up you need to get into the console prompt...
Now I can't remember the exact steps here, but from what I remember it's
fairly straightforward - generally follow the instructions to get a command
line.

From here you need to go to your boot drive (we'll say c:\ in this instance)

So at the command prompt type c:\ <press enter>
then type cd \ <press enter> to make sure you're at the root
then cd \windows\system32\config\system <enter>

if you do a 'dir' here then hopefully you'll see two interesting files - one
would be 'system', the other 'system.sav'.

type rename system system.old <press enter> to rename your old, broken
system file
then type copy system.sav system <press enter> to make a new system file
based on the system.sav

Then reboot your computer with your fingers crossed. Hopefully this should
give you enough to get your computer up and running again... You *may* lose
some registry information - I can't remember if this is the case... but
you'll have a working PC.

There may be a better (and supported) way of doing this... but like I say,
this has worked for me in the past...

Best of luck
Nick Tsiatinis
 
-----Original Message-----
This is what I'm getting:

============
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
orogopnal Setup CD-Rom.
Select 'r' at the first screen to repair.
============


When I try to repair it doesn't work. Can I pull this fill from another PC
and copy it to this one? Will that work?

Greg


.
Ouch, you have been the victim of the registry.
Click to expand...
Search the main Knowledge base for article KB307545

Althouh a good idea to try to replace the files
individually, it can give some very bad results.
Please do not try to replace it from another PC. That
would be bad.

Hopefully the article will be of assitance, as I have
fixed innumerable registries doing this process.

Cheers,
Angus
 
System.sav is not to correct file to restore from. You need to use the
system file from the systemroot\repair directory. Be advised that unless
are are using MS Backup, that file will have the date stamp from the day you
first installed your system and you lose any changes since that date.

This file is a registry file and is machine specific.

I've also seen bad RAM cause this error.
 
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