[xxdoniellexx]

I have an Emachine and Tryed to restore my windows just to clean stuff up...after the restore, windows would not start and said "Windows did not start successfully" and gave a few options of what to do. One of those options was to use last know... after trying that it said "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 original setup cd-rom. select "r" at the first screen to start repair"...I do not have a original cd-rom...Also,a very knowledgable computer person told me that they have heard of this with EMachines and that there is a set of keys you can push when its booting up or start up (not exactly sure which they said) and that should fix it but they were not sure what the keys were...any help would be greatly appreciated!!

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EMachines and that there is a set of keys you can push when its booting up or start up

That is probably the hotkey combo to access the recovery partition. Before that, we will try some other things.

If you have your Windows CD, then go here and follow the steps: http://icrontic.com/...pair_windows_xp

If you don't then click on Recovery Console Instructions in my sig, and follow the directions there to create a CD, then use that CD with the previous link provided.

[edge2022]

EMachines and that there is a set of keys you can push when its booting up or start up

That is probably the hotkey combo to access the recovery partition. Before that, we will try some other things.

If you have your Windows CD, then go here and follow the steps: http://icrontic.com/...pair_windows_xp

If you don't then click on Recovery Console Instructions in my sig, and follow the directions there to create a CD, then use that CD with the previous link provided.

[happyrock]

go here..download the following file:

rc.iso....then run chkdsk /r
from the rc.iso cd...be sure the bios is set to boot from the cd drive first...

if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files go

here and get burncdcc ..a small FAST no frills iso

burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its rc.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....

boot from the rc.iso cd....
when you boot from rc.iso you will get a blue screen and it will say setup is loading files...
then it will say its starting windows...
you will get to a screen that says ...do you want to install windows or 2nd choice it to repair windows..
press r to repair...you will get to a ...C:\>.......this is where you type in chkdsk /r

type in chkdsk /r press enter
note the single space before the /

While chkdsk is running, you will see a light blue window with a dark blue band at the top and bottom. Chkdsk will

display the specific stage it is checking as well as the percentage of completion of the stage. You cannot do

anything else on your computer while chkdsk is running. When chkdsk is finished, it will automatically reboot your

computer.
NOTE this can take a long time to complete..it may even appear to hang or get stuck at a certain % for a

couple of hours...then complete...it may even back up and go over the same area...this is normal...let it

run...there are 5 stages
DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER WHILE RUNNING CHKDSK or you can have severe problems...
nojoy...
boot from the cd again...
then type fixmbr press enter...reboot
no joy ....boot from the cd again...
type in fixboot press enter...reboot
nojoy...boot from the cd again...

Type in bootcfg /scan and press Enter

if it says total identified window installs: 1

Type in bootcfg /rebuild and press Enter...

It will identify your XP installation...type Y once you see this prompt.

You will be prompted to enter the load identifier...type in Microsoft XP Home Edition or Microsoft XP

Professional depending on whichever version you have...press enter

You will be prompted to enter the load options...type in /fastdetect and press Enter

Type in exit and press Enter

remove the cd

Reboot

[xxdoniellexx]

just to make sure that i do it right..how do i boot from cd again and reboot?

[happyrock]

When booting to a Windows setup CD/DVD and many other bootable discs, you may be prompted with a message to press a key to boot to the disc. To boot to the CD or DVD, you'll need to press any key on your keyboard (like the space bar) within the few seconds that the message is on the screen.
If you do nothing, your computer will check for boot information on the next boot device in the list in BIOS which will probably be your hard drive...
also look on the screen and see if it says press F? for settings or boot order
if you do not see the press any key to boot from the cd go here to see how to set the bios so that it does...

Edited by happyrock, 21 July 2009 - 06:33 AM.

[xxdoniellexx]

Ok I got that part I was more confused with what you ment by reboot nojoy or reboot no joy...the only way I know of to reboot from the repair screen is to type exit and then enter....Anyways, I tryed this last night and had no luck after completing it and removing the cd it went right back to the windows did not start successfully...I did notice that during the chkdsk it did not open a light blue window like you said it would, it only showed me the percentage complete on the same black screen. Also when the chkdisk was complete it did not reboot. It said it was complete and 156288320 kilobytes total disk space, 131940860 kilobytes are available, 4096 bytes in each allocation unit, 39072080 total allocation units available on disk then below that was the C:\Windows>.....also after the fixmbr prompt i got a caution message that said this computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot record. fixmbr may damage your partition tables if you proceed. this could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk to become in accessible. if you are not having problems accessing your drive, do not continue.
one more thing...every time the repair screen came back up it asked which windows installation would you like to log onto? I put 1 every time and it would ask the adm. password and I pushed enter to go past that. Please let me know what I should do now...Thank you!

[happyrock]

when you got this message ....

.also after the fixmbr prompt i got a caution message that said this computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot record. fixmbr may damage your partition tables if you proceed. this could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk to become in accessible. if you are not having problems accessing your drive, do not continue.

did you say yes to continue...

nojoy means it did not help and reboot means to type exit and press enter...
what is the drive manufactures name ...look in the bios by tapping the delete key as soon as you power up...look around in the bios for the model number of the drive...

Edited by happyrock, 21 July 2009 - 09:24 AM.

[xxdoniellexx]

I did choose yes, im pretty positive i followed your directions exactly all the way through.....the SYSTEM INFO is Product name-W6409, Serial number-CRD69 300 16573..the DESKTOP BOARD INFO is manufacturer- intel corp., product name- D102GGC2, version- AAD70214-200, serial number- BTGC63700591....Does that answer your question??
P.S
I am not at the comp. right now i wrote that info down on a previous day so if it is not what you need I can go look for it again..

[edge2022]

So was chkdsk /r successful? Did it detect any errors?
Did you do everything mentioned in this article: http://icrontic.com/...pair_windows_xp (This is the same thing that happyrock said)

When booting your computer, start tapping F11 when the prompt "Press F11 to start recovery" comes up. Tell me if you can access the recovery partition.

[happyrock]

nope.... none of the info you posted has to do with the hard drive...

[xxdoniellexx]

pressing delete on power up did not do anything...it said f2 was for bios settings so i pushed that and the only things i could find about the drive was under the ADVANCED TAB, under drive DRIVE CONFIGURATION, it said use automatic mode- enabled, ata/ide mode- enhanced, s.m.a.r.t.- enabled, sata port 1,2,3,4 all not installed, Primary master- ST3160212A - 160.0 GB, primary slave not installed, secondary master- HL-DT-ST DVD-RW - ATAPI, secondary slace not installed, hard disk pre-delay [0] under BOOT TAB, Hard drive order <ST3160212A >......If none of this is what your looking for could you please help explain to me where I can find what u need...sorry im not that smart bout that stuff...thank you

[xxdoniellexx]

also F11 does not do anything either...when the intel screen comes on it says F2 is for bios settings and F10 is for Boot menu

[happyrock]

this was it...ST3160212A...its a 160GB seagate drive

go here and get...SeaTools for DOS
SeaTools for DOS has replaced SeaTools Desktop and PowerMax. SeaTools for DOS can test Seagate or Maxtor Parallel ATA (PATA and IDE) and Serial ATA (SATA) interface disc drives. Because the software boots to its own operating system you can test your drive regardless of the OS installed on it. You can even test a new or completely blank drive. SeaTools for DOS will instruct the drive to run its built in Drive Self Test (DST) and give either a pass or fail status. If you are troubleshooting your disc drive and the DST passes, then you have a good drive!
get the .ISO VERSION...you will need to burn this as a image ...if you don't know how or you don't have a .iso burner follow these instructions to bun the tool and then boot using the F10 boot options and make the cd the boot device...
if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files
go here and get burncdcc ..a small FAST no frills iso
burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start by clicking on BurnCDCC.exe
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its seatools.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....

Edited by happyrock, 21 July 2009 - 05:31 PM.

[edge2022]

Seeing as there is no recovery partition, were you given recovery or re installation CDs when you bought your computer?

Run the hard disk diagnostic... run the long diagnostic on Seatools. Tell the results and if the diagnostic fixed any errors.

You can try a manual registry recovery as in this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545
Use the Rc.iso that you just burnt.

[xxdoniellexx]

thank you very much, i will try this and let you know what it says...