[shelster911]

I installed a new HP printer (same name brand as the one that just died), following the instructions to the T. The printer worked perfectly, the system (which hadn't been giving me any problems) worked fine & I restarted it and got this black screen that says Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM. I tried to put my Dell Windows XP OS disc in & the same screen stays up. The cd doesn't even seem to be running (although my cd rom does show a green light & recognizes the disc is in there). What can I do to rectify this problem? I'm tempted to just buy a whole new hard drive and start fresh!

Frustrated,
Shelly

[Advertisements]

Hello,
Restart the computer and press F8 (a few times).
This will give you a boot option menu.
Select Last known good configuration
If this does not work, try safe mode (same menu) and uninstall the printer.
Boot in to regular Windows and reinstall the printer.

[hfcg]

Hello,
Restart the computer and press F8 (a few times).
This will give you a boot option menu.
Select Last known good configuration
If this does not work, try safe mode (same menu) and uninstall the printer.
Boot in to regular Windows and reinstall the printer.

[shelster911]

Thanks for the input. I tried both those things & neither worked. Another GeekstoGo-er also suggested that I set my bios to boot from the cd so I could use the recovery disc. I did that & was hopeful because Windows seemed to be installing. Alas, I got a BSOD that says "REGISTRY_ERROR If this is the 1st time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:..." and it tells me to unistall hardware or software, etc. Unfortunately, this ISN'T the 1st time I've seen that screen. Even where nothing had been recently installed. I could just usually restart & it would be gone. I think it just may be dead this time.

Say, if it IS dead, do you think it's just the harddrive or would it have affected the motherboard too?

Thanks again. If anyone thinks of anything else I can do to salvage this harddrive, plz let me know.

-Shelly

Edited by shelster911, 18 December 2008 - 04:28 PM.