After stopping a TrendMicro online virus scan midway through its scan, and having it freeze on my screen, my attempt to end the process apparently corrupted a file in Windows XP.

I have made a number of attempts to repair the file using my XP disc. I have installed XP on a separate storage drive in the meantime (& removed the original C: drive).

Therefore, I am searching for more input on this issue (&/or) options for having the data on my drive recovered. Thanks for any help...

Refer the following M$ article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;EN-US;307545.
And follow all the steps in it.

Thanks for the link. I have printed the steps and will hopefully be able to begin the process soon. However...

Upon typing the first line "md tmp" in the recovery console, the response is "Access is denied."

I have not been prompted for a password at any point of accessing the recovery console. I am not on a network and I am using my original XP disc that came with my PC/OS. Fwiw, there are two profiles that I created in XP.

Any suggestions to overcome the "Access is denied"?

The article mentioned by darth ash emphasizes that you should use the procedures after trying easier, more secure applications. Have you tried System Recovery? It is easy, safe, and solves million problems.

Good luck

Thanks for the tip, but I don't have a system recovery disk to perform the process.

Hopefully I'll jump this hurdle soon!

I am talking about the recovery option which is built in XP. You don't need a recovery disk for that. Press: start>help and support>cancel changes made in your computer using system reconstruction (I have my menus in a foreign language. I translated it as best as I could). You choose a day previous to the day you started having this problems and follow the simple instructions. This is one of the most helpful features in windows. I always wonder why people go to such lengths before using this option which is so simple and solves so many problems.

I am unable to start XP with the corrupted drive, therefore I'm unable to get to my XP desktop. When attempting to boot in safe mode or with the last known good configuration, the boot up haults at the ...system32\config\system file.

This seems to reflect the issues with my computer; it crashes if rebooted; refers to bios memory options and to disable, and refers to FAT 32.

THe larger issue is also I am sitting /living in FL while my belonging are in storage in CA (including my Windows XP disk). Is there any way to begin to resolve this issue without having my window xp disk info??

Also, how do I start resetting bios? it states that the 1st allocation unit is not available?

Thank you for any insight or assistance.

Jennifer

\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM , stores the HArdware config. of ur PC.
So its going to be almost impossible to boot, because NTLDR will have no idea about the Hardware.
Follow the instructions of the link in Post#2.
U are getting "access denied", because u may have not typed the password of the THE Adminstrator account, if its blank just press enter.

This post has been edited by darth_ash: Aug 15 2005, 02:11 PM

I am still unable to get around "Access is denied."

I have followed the steps in the link, and at no point am I prompted for a password. After I insert the WinXP CD, go through welcome to setup, press "R", I then arrive at the recovery console c prompt.

Under normal boot-up circumstances, I do not have my PC setup to request a password. I have an OEM version of XP. I fully understand the directions in the link in post #2, I just need to figure out why I'm getting "Access is denied" despite no prompt for a password.

Hi, your situation looks just like mine.

I got error message

windows could not start because the follwing file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

First I tried the solution described on Microsoft article, but I got the same "Access is denied" message. Then I noticed that even dir command didn't work so I tried to re-install windows.

Windows install said that drive C was empty and its type was unknown. So maybe the whole C: drive is corrupted. Now I wish I could restore my files somehow.

I also found a similar case:
http://forums.tomcoyote.org/index.php?show...t=&#entry192421

If I understand correctly from your first letter then what you are mainly looking for is recovering data stored on disk C which is corrupted. If this is the case then install the corrupted disk C as a slave to the storage disk on which you installed XP. Copy all the data that you need to keep from disk C (the corrupted) into the storage disk. Remove the storage disk, install the corrupted disk as master, clean format and install windows on it. After that install the storage disk as a slave and copy back all your data to disk c.

Am I right that this is what you look for? if this is the case then this is an easy solution if you know how to do this.

Yes, i need to recover some of my files, but I'm just telling that the symptoms of the error are similar to phoam's error.

I gave this a shot for my situation, and the drive with the corrupted XP file (and all of my valuable data) isn't recognized. I tried to check for new hardware, but when clicking "next" to begin the search, my PC shuts down and restarts. The orginal, corrupted drive is set as the slave drive and the newer drive with the newer installation of XP is set as the master.

Am I missing something? It would be a life-saver to get all of my 115 gigs of programs, files, etc. off of the original drive.

There are few possible reasons why the computer does not recognize the HD. Follow these instructions to correct the situation:

1: Go into Bios (if you don't know how to do this please ask). Set all IDE devices to AUTO.

2: Make sure that the flat cable that link the hard drives to the mother board is attached correctly (red markings on one edge of the cable face the molex connector (the white, thick connector attached by leads to the power supply). The cable going to the hard drives should be connected to IDE1 connector on the motherboard (often colored blue)

3: Make sure there are no bent or broken pins and attach the cable firmly.

4: Make sure to jumper the HDs correctly. Attach both to the same flat cable. The one with the good operating system must be jumpered as master and the other as slave. Alternatively you can jumper both as CS (cable select) and the computer will automatically identify the HD at the end of the cable as Master and the one in the middle as slave. (Attach the storage HD with the operating system to the end of the cable and the bad HD to the middle.)

Good luck