Re: System file missing or corrupt

"BrianF" <bk266378@xxxxxxxxx> wrote

My daughter has an OEM Windows XP Home PC purchased from a supermarket, so no CD provided. Last week she got a Norton Internet Security warning that Live Update was not performing correctly and recommending that she should uninstall and reinstal NIS. She did that but then got a warning the Windows could not be started because the Windows\System32\Config\System file is missing or corrupt.
I have tried booting in MS-DOS with a Windows 98 CD but could not access the c: drive that way. I then installed another HDD and put Windows XP Pro on that. Then, I put the original HDD back as a slave and that enabled me to view the file hierachy in Explorer.
The System file is present on the old drive so I tried renaming it and removed the new drive but still got the same message when attempting to re-boot.
I tried searching the original drive for a backup copy of the corrupt file but could not find one.
Can anyone suggest a way out of this?

That error indicates a corrupt registry. Have you tried Last Known Good Configuration from the Advanced Boot Options menu? Boot the PC, as the BIOS splash screen disappears, repeatedly tap the F8 key until the menu with Safe Mode appears. Try Last Known Good Configuration.

If that doesn't work try safe mode with command prompt, and if it will get to windows do a system restore by giving this command at the command prompt:
c:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

If that doesn't work then the options are rapidly decreasing. See this KB article which is the standard way for dealing with this problem. Unfortunately it has a caveat about not using if the installation is OEM.

How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry that Prevents Windows XP from Starting:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=307545

First make sure that all the data is backed up. If not then put it back in the other machine as a slave drive and copy the data. You might need to take ownership of some files/folders. From Start | Help and Support search on Ownership for info or see this article.

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

After the data is saved then try the fix in that other KB article. There is nothing to loose at this point.

If that doesn't work then restore the system using the mechanism provided, either a recovery CD or the hidden partition on the drive with an image of the drive as received from the factory. See the computer's documentation for how to do this or contact the tech support for the computer manufacturer. If it has a non destructive recovery option that's good, but it might not in which case you'll have to install any other apps from their original media and restore the data from the backup.

Once the system is up and running get rid of NIS and all Norton home products. There are good alternatives that are either free or low cost. For firewall there is Kerio Personal Firewall from Sunbelt Software (free), Zone Alarm (free) and Comodo Personal Firewall (free). For AV there is Avast (free), AVG (free) and NOD32 (paid but excellent). Any of these would work better than NIS. For non viral malware use Defender, Ad-Aware SE Personal, SpyBot S&D, SpywareBlaster, and BHO Demon.

The registry can be backed up on a regular basis using ERUNT which is free and works well. Set it up as a scheduled task to run daily. If set up properly, in this kind of situation the registry can be restored from a backup from the Recovery Console. Her system doesn't have the XP CD but any one will do for access to the Recovery Console.

ERUNT
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt

Installing and Using ERUNT
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_eruntuse.html
http://www.winxptutor.com/regback.htm

Hopefully she backs up data regularly.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

.

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