OK... I did a quick search and really didn't find anything, so if there is a thread addressing this issue already, please link me to it.

Here is the message I've gotten several times over the past few months and a couple of reformats:

"Windows could not start because the following files is missing or corrupt: WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/CONFIG/SYSTEM"

It goes on to instruct a repair. I've repaired several times by going into setting up a new OS then selecting repair. I've also gone and just reformatted my HDD twice within the past few months.

I keep getting this issue. It started when my computer got shut down improperly due to weather I think. It's been a while since the first time it's happened. It's been a reoccuring thing. This last time happened last night after installing some updates for Adobe Photoshop CS2. A couple of days prior, I had reformatted due to getting this message, repairing it, then getting it again after rebooting from installing Window's updates.

Is there something that causes this? How can I prevent it? Is it due to faulty hardware? I don't understand.



Please help. This is so frustrating.

Part one
In part one, you start the Recovery Console, create a temporary folder, back up the existing registry files to a new location, delete the registry files at their existing location, and then copy the registry files from the repair folder to the System32\Config folder. When you have finished this procedure, a registry is created that you can use to start Windows XP. This registry was created and saved during the initial setup of Windows XP. Therefore any changes and settings that occurred after the Setup program was finished are lost.

To complete part one, follow these steps:
1. Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.
Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
2. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
4. When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
5. At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following lines, pressing ENTER after you type each line:

6. Type exit to quit Recovery Console. Your computer will restart.
Note This procedure assumes that Windows XP is installed to the C:\Windows folder. Make sure to change C:\Windows to the appropriate windows_folder if it is a different location.

If you have access to another computer, to save time, you can copy the text in step two, and then create a text file called "Regcopy1.txt" (for example). To create this file, run the following command when you start in Recovery Console:
batch regcopy1.txt
With the batch command in Recovery Console, you can process all the commands in a text file sequentially. When you use the batch command, you do not have to manually type as many commands.


Part two
To complete the procedure described in this section, you must be logged on as an administrator, or an administrative user (a user who has an account in the Administrators group). If you are using Windows XP Home Edition, you can log on as an administrative user. If you log on as an administrator, you must first start Windows XP Home Edition in Safe mode. To start the Windows XP Home Edition computer in Safe mode, follow these steps.

Note Print these instructions before you continue. You cannot view these instructions after you restart the computer in Safe Mode. If you use the NTFS file system, also print the instructions from Knowledge Base article KB309531. Step 7 contains a reference to the article.
To complete part two, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Shut Down (or click Turn Off Computer), click Restart, and then click OK (or click Restart).
2. Press the F8 key.

On a computer that is configured to start to multiple operating systems, you can press F8 when you see the Startup menu.

3. Use the arrow keys to select the appropriate Safe mode option, and then press ENTER.
4. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, use the arrow keys to select the installation that you want to access, and then press ENTER.

In part two, you copy the registry files from their backed up location by using System Restore. This folder is not available in Recovery Console and is generally not visible during typical usage. Before you start this procedure, you must change several settings to make the folder visible:

1. Start Windows Explorer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Folder options.
3. Click the View tab.
4. Under Hidden files and folders, click to select Show hidden files and folders, and then click to clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box.
5. Click Yes when the dialog box that confirms that you want to display these files appears.
6. Double-click the drive where you installed Windows XP to display a list of the folders. If is important to click the correct drive.
7. Open the System Volume Information folder. This folder is unavailable and appears dimmed because it is set as a super-hidden folder.

Note This folder contains one or more _restore {GUID} folders such as "_restore{87BD3667-3246-476B-923F-F86E30B3E7F8}".

Note You may receive the following error message:
C:\System Volume Information is not accessible. Access is denied.
If you receive this message, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article to gain access to this folder and continue with the procedure:
[url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309531/]
309531[/url] How to gain access to the System Volume Information folder

8. Open a folder that was not created at the current time. You may have to click Details on the View menu to see when these folders were created. There may be one or more folders starting with "RPx under this folder. These are restore points.
9. Open one of these folders to locate a Snapshot subfolder. The following path is an example of a folder path to the Snapshot folder:
C:\System Volume Information\_restore{D86480E3-73EF-47BC-A0EB-A81BE6EE3ED8}\RP1\Snapshot
10. From the Snapshot folder, copy the following files to the C:\Windows\Tmp folder:


11. Rename the files in the C:\Windows\Tmp folder as follows:


These files are the backed up registry files from System Restore. Because you used the registry file that the Setup program created, this registry does not know that these restore points exist and are available. A new folder is created with a new GUID under System Volume Information and a restore point is created that includes a copy of the registry files that were copied during part one. Therefore, it is important not to use the most current folder, especially if the time stamp on the folder is the same as the current time.

The current system configuration is not aware of the previous restore points. You must have a previous copy of the registry from a previous restore point to make the previous restore points available again.

The registry files that were copied to the Tmp folder in the C:\Windows folder are moved to make sure that the files are available under Recovery Console. You must use these files to replace the registry files currently in the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder. By default, Recovery Console has limited folder access and cannot copy files from the System Volume folder.

Note The procedure described in this section assumes that you are running your computer with the FAT32 file system. For more information about how to access the System Volume Information Folder with the NTFS file system, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
309531 How to gain access to the System Volume Information folder


Part Three
In part three, you delete the existing registry files, and then copy the System Restore Registry files to the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder:

To complete part three, follow these steps:
1. Start Recovery Console.
2. At the command prompt, type the following lines, pressing ENTER after you type each line:

Note Some of these command lines may be wrapped for readability.
3. Type exit to quit Recovery Console. Your computer restarts.
Note This procedure assumes that Windows XP is installed to the C:\Windows folder. Make sure to change C:\Windows to the appropriate windows_folder if it is a different location.

If you have access to another computer, to save time, you can copy the text in step two, and then create a text file called "Regcopy1.txt" (for example).


Part Four

To complete part four, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click All Programs.
2. Click Accessories, and then click System Tools.
3. Click System Restore, and then click Restore to a previous RestorePoint.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;307545

REFERENCES
For more information about using Recovery Console, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
307654 How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP
216417 How to install the Windows XP Recovery Console
240831 How to copy files from Recovery Console to removable media
314058 Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console For more information about System Restore, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
306084 How to restore the operating system to a previous state in Windows XP
261716 System Restore removes files during a restore procedure

Could there be a reason why after 2 years of flawless activity this is all of a sudden happening constantly though?

I get tired of repairing my OS over and over again.




I'm at work right now, so when I get home I'm going to do as you posted. It's more in depth than what I've been doing, so I feel more confident in this, but my pessimistic side feels that it's going to happen over and over again anyways. I have my fingers crossed.

your hard drive could be failing, your processor could be failing, your ram could be failing, you could have a bad IDE cable, you could have a bad IDE controller, you could have a bad PSU...there's alot of stuff that could cause such corruption...not really many that are easy to troubleshoot

but...you could to a chkdsk /f on your hd to check it (also you could go to the HD manufacturer's website and see if they have a diagnostics tool you could use)
go to www.memtest.org and follow the instructions on making a bootable ram test disk and run that program for at least 2 hours to test your ram

the rest of the stuff is a bit hard to check

ahhhh... I was afraid that there could be tons of issues that could be possible causes.

Thank you for taking the time to help. I'm eager to repair when I get home. Also, thank you for pointing me in the direction of how to check my HDD and my RAM. My HDD and RAM are over 2 yrs old. I have a Western Digital Raptor 35g and a I think I have two 512 kingston sticks of RAM.

Thank you again. I'll post some results later tonight.

alright. took me a while, but I got it all up and running. I'm going to test the ram and my HDD tomorrow due to the fact that I didn't leave the office until 9p (gotta love those 12 hr days). Thanks for your help in getting my computer up and running. I really appreciate it.

Now the true test will come in how long my computer stays up. Hopefully, if it's a hardware issue, I can replace the faulty piece instead of constantly having to repair.

I'm going to keep this thread updated with my findings. I may need more help. sigh

let me know what happens and it might be in your best interest...while you've got the computer running...to back up any important data files (family pictures, documents, etc..) just in case

Well... I downloaded the diagnostics tool for my Western Digital hdd. I ran the quick test last night before going to bed, then the extended test this morning, and both tests passed.

I downloaded the memtest86+ iso file last night too, but I haven't gotten to that yet. I'll get to that this evening after work. Hopefully, I won't have to work late tonight. Of course, who knows what will pop up throughout today that will make me work late.

Are there any other tests I could run to test any other piece of hardware that could cause this type of error?

you could actually run memtest the whole day while you're at work if you wanted too...it will run untill you stop it

Awesome. That's good to know. Thanks again!

ok.. I ran the test yesterday for over 12 hours. The results were 21 Passes and 0 Errors. So, I'm assuming that my RAM is a-ok?

Also, is it possible that installing updates or installing anything onto my computer could cause this issue? It's always been the same WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/CONFIG/SYSTEM error message and never the SAM, SECURITY, OR DEFAULT.

If installing updates or software could be the cause of this corruption, is there a program out there that can monitor that and prevent/fix the issue before I have to run a repair procress to get back up and running?

This post has been edited by winabi: Aug 17 2006, 09:29 AM

i have this same error message ( WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/CONFIG/SYSTEM Missing or Corrupt), but i am unable to proceed past Step 5. i cant copy

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

it says the file is corrupted?

any suggestions?

This post has been edited by axp113: Aug 25 2006, 11:07 AM

you could try a repair install
Repair the Windows XP installation.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Make sure that the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive is the first priority startup device.
   See your computer documentation for information about how to do this.
2. Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.
3. When the instruction to "Press any key to boot from CD" appears, press a key. Your computer starts from the Windows XP CD.
4. When the computer starts from the CD, the system verifies your hardware, and then prompts you to select one of the following options:
   

   - To set up Windows XP now, press ENTER
   - To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.
   - To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

5. Press ENTER.
6. Press F8 to accept the Licensing Agreement.
7. A box lists your current Windows XP installation, and then the computer prompts you to select one of the following options:
   

   - To repair the selected Windows XP installation, press R.
   - To continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing, press ESC.

8. Press R.

You'll get to keep your existing apps & settings, but you need to re-install SP2, Windows Updates & any unsigned drivers afterwards.
NOTE: Be aware that you'll lose any protection from Blaster / Sasser type worms. Don't go online without a firewall, whether the built in Windows one or 3rd party.

How to Perform A Re-Install Of XP

Problem #2, i tried that and i am not given the option for a repair install when i get to that screen. i only get the option

- To continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing, press ESC.

any more suggestions?