Re: WinXP registry & system restore

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From: Dave Patrick (mail_at_NoSpam.DSPatrick.com)
Date: 02/23/04 

Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 15:11:50 -0700

If the system hive is corrupt, and assuming you already tried LKG, It may be
possible to rename the system hive found in
%windir%\system32\config\system
to system.old
then rename
%windir%\system32\config\system.alt
to
%windir%\system32\config\system

If that fails you haven't much choice but to copy/ use the
original-as-installed system hive from
%windir%\repair\system
to
%windir%\system32\config\system

You'll need to reinstall the device drivers for any hardware added since the
original OS install.

To start the Recovery Console, start the computer from the Windows XP Setup
CD-Rom. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the
Recovery Console. When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator
password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER. Once the
password has been validated, you have full access to the Recovery Console,
but limited access to the hard disk. You can only access the following
folders on your computer: %systemroot% and %windir% 

-- 
Regards,
Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
Microsoft Certified Professional [Windows 2000]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
"Doug Rorem" wrote:
| (I realize this is a WinXP question, but the only other
| Windows newsgroup for WinXP registry issues that I could
| find is a German one:
| microsoft.public.de.german.windowsxp.registry)
|
| 23-feb-2004
|
| Hi,
|
| I'm trying to help a friend with a problem with WinXP home.
| They can't boot because the machine's registry is corrupt
| (i.e. they get the error:
|
| Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or
corrupt:
|          \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
|
| I've looked at the MS KB article 307545 'How to recover from a
| corrupted registry that prevents windows XP from starting'.
|
| My question - KB307545 gives you a method to recover (using the
| recovery console) the registry back to the initial setup of
| WinXP. The system restore takes snapshots much more recent than
| that, however it requires the system to be bootable to get
| at them. Is it possible to put this hard drive in a working
| WinXP system and somehow use it to recover more recent versions
| of the registry (i.e. system, software, sam, security & default
| files) from one of the system restore snapshots stored on the
| hard drive?
|
| As an alternate.. does the Win2K ChkReg.exe utility work for
| WinXP as well? I guess I could make the boot diskettes for
| WinXP home and try running it. (AFAIK, it isn't part of the
| WinXP Recovery Console)
|
| Thanks in advance...
|
| Doug Rorem
| rorem@ai.uic.edu
|

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Harddisk Problems
    ... To start the Recovery Console, start the computer from the Windows 2000 ... Setup CD or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks. ... | Source: Application Popup ... | Application popup: SyncBack.exe - Corrupt File: The file or directory ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.advanced_server)
  • Re: Corrupt system.sav
    ... If the system hive is corrupt, and assuming you already tried LKG, It ... To start the Recovery Console, start the computer from the Windows 2000 ... Setup CD or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks. ... | I am asking someone who really knows the details of how | the system hives work as far as maintaining these key sets ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.registry)
  • Re: WINNTsystem32...file is corrupted
    ... If the system hive is corrupt, and assuming you already tried LKG, It may be ... To start the Recovery Console, start the computer from the Windows 2000 ... Setup CD or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks. ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.general)
  • Re: NTOSKRNL.EXE missing or corrupt
    ... Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: ... XP installation CD or a bootable CD with the XP Recovery Console on ... If any of those events have occurred, you should boot into the Windows ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Registry cannot load the Hive (SAM) file error... and Windows fails to boot.
    ... You need authentication to logon to the Recovery Console, if the SAM hive is corrupt you will not be able to authenticate. ... failed to go into Windows and rebooted. ... Once again it tried to check the disk and said it ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)