[lilly]

i tried to start my computer this morning but received an error that went something like this:

your computer will not start bc of a corrupt file:

system32/config/system (or something like that)

then it said that i could possibly fix the problem by inserting the xp startup disc and pressing "r" for repair.

my cd rom drive has been non functional, and so I need to get an external cd drive today-- if I do this, and get ahold of windows xp, will this fix the problem?? what happened???

thanks.

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Well.
That depends

First, many computers will not boot up with a external CD

If it does (some will, you have to set the external device in BIOS), follow these instructions

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

How it happened....hard to say...sector went bad on the drive, perhaps, virus attacked the registry...system crash during a registry write....

[gerryf]

Well.
That depends

First, many computers will not boot up with a external CD

If it does (some will, you have to set the external device in BIOS), follow these instructions

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

How it happened....hard to say...sector went bad on the drive, perhaps, virus attacked the registry...system crash during a registry write....

[starjax]

ok, what has happened is that your system hive (registry) has corrupted. I can walk you through several steps. first what you need to do is boot from an xp cd into recover console. once there run chkdsk c: /r to scan your hard drive for problems. watch what it does. you should see it recover that file. if it has, listed in the summary at the end of the scan, x bytes in bad sectors then you should be replacing your hard drive.

without the system hive you can not run a repair because xp won't have anything to referance against.

there are additional steps available to get the system up and running but they get very technical. please try the above and let us know the results.


Starjax

Edited by starjax, 11 April 2005 - 03:36 PM.