Re: Corrupt registry in an OEM version of XP

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"John John" <audetweld@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uPXiuuFBHHA.3928@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mike Hyndman wrote:

"John John" <audetweld@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eS1gyUCBHHA.4472@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mike Hyndman wrote:


"John John" <audetweld@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

No hard drive can be found most likely = press F6 at the
beginning of the setup routine and load the "Mass Device" or SATA
drivers.

John


John,

The harddrive is an IDE.

Many thanks

Make sure the drive is properly recognized in the BIOS, check
cables for loose connections. Run chkdsk /r on the disk in
question. If you still get the error do these two commands:

fixmbr
fixboot


John,


From where? I can't get into safe mode command prompt or otherwise
and


hitting R on the Windows set up screen just puts me into the "can't
find HD loop". Cables and BIOS ok.
I'm tempted to slave the drive into a nother PC and see if I can
recover any "work" from it, then try and do a clean reinstall.

If you can't get to the Recovery Console then it appears to me that
the Windows setup program cannot figure out the drive controller.
Mounting the disk in another computer might be a good idea, at least
you will find out if the drive is sound and if the data on it is
(somewhat) intact.

From another Windows XP installation you will also be able to run

chkdsk

on the drive if need be. If you mount the disk in another machine
and it checks out ok then you will have to consider hardware problems
as the cause of the problem. Is the disk connected to the
motherboard's IDE controller or to a PCI IDE controller? If the
later you will need to do the F6 thing.


John
My only concern is with not being able to access any work etc., on the
slaved drive due to account permissions etc.,
I haven't tried to re install Windows into a different folder on the
HD for similar reasons.
I still think that this problem is due to the fact the OS is an OEM
version and the way it "treats! its hives is different to the way a
retail version does.

Is this your computer or are you fixing it for someone else? The
permissions problem is no big deal, all you have to do while logged on
as an Administrator is take ownership of the files. The original owner
can again later on, provided he/she has administrative privileges,
retake ownership of the files.

The idea that an OEM version would not allow you to use the Recovery
Console is generally news to me, but what I don't know would make up a
big book. In any case, the error seems to happen before the setup
program even knows what, if even any Windows version is on the disk.
Read here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315403/ and see if anything
there might apply. Is the Windows cd that you are trying to use a full
retail cd? What happens if instead of pressing R for the repair
options, you press <Enter> for the setup options? Don't worry, you can
back out of the setup at anytime until the very last minute. If the cd
is a retail version and the setup program reports that no disk is
available then you have some sort of hardware problem, or a controller
issue. I think your idea of mounting the disk in another computer is a
very good one, it may answer a few questions and shed some light on the
problem.


John,

Many thanks, the OEM problem is mentioned in the warning paragraph in
KB article 307545. below.

"Warning
Do not use the procedure that is described in this article if your
computer has an OEM-installed operating system. The system hive on OEM
installations creates passwords and user accounts that did not exist
previously. If you use the procedure that is described in this article,
you
may not be able to log back into the recovery console to restore the
original registry hives."

Full retail version CD and pressing R at setup gives me the HD missing
etc., error message.
The annoying thing is is that I had a similar problem with a PC last
year and fixed it, but can't remember how. ;(
It isn't my PC and I am now going to insert the HD as a slave in my my
and sweep it for viruses, run a few utilities and then see if I can
relocate the files mentioned in the KB article manually.
PC's, don't you just love'em? ;)

Regards

Mike H

Hi Mike,

I'm aware of the problem that you describe about OEM installations and
passwords/user accounts but that is a different thing and it doesn't
happen all that often. That problem is that some OEM's might use non
standard or different SID's and the logon for the Recovery Console isn't
aware of these different SID's and thus cannot logon to the installation.
The registry hives themselves are not really different. Your problem is
that you are not even reaching the Recovery Console logon stage, it says
that there are no hard drives present and at this early stage it wouldn't
even know anything about the SID's and passwords, it first has to find a
hard drive before it can find a Windows installation to attempt to logon
to. To me it means that the hard drive is dead, improperly connected or
that Windows cannot communicate with the drive controller. What happens
if you try or pretend that you want to install Windows and press <Enter>
instead of R, does it give you the same message?


John
update,

Whilst the drive was slaved, I took the following files out of the
system32\config folder; Sytem, Software, Sam, Security, Default and
replaced them with the ones from the Repair folder. KB 307545
I then reinstalled the drive as master and it booted up and went into
chdsk, this ran, exited and the PC booted into Windows OK, just an error
message saying a modem couldn't start.
I then plugged a network cable in with the intention of going on line to
get updates etc, but there was no activity from the socket.
I checked in Network connections and was told that the service hadn't
started, which I did, it was set to manual.
Control Panel >System said that a lancard was present as did the BIOS. I
tried uninstalling it and it was found at startup as new hardware, but
still the Network Connections folder remained empty.
Then I started getting an error message saying that "Generic Host for
Win32 Services has encountered a problem etc.," accepting this message
then brought up another error message, the dreaded "Sytem Shutdown
Initiated by NTAuthority System, RPC Terminated etc.,"
Restarts OK but Control Panel can become unresponsive and closing it down
via Task Manager results in the dissapearance of all the desktop icons
and taskbar.
I slaved it back into my PC, turned off system restore on the drive and
scanned for viruses and spyware in safemode without finding anything.
Replacing the drive as master shows no improvement. Neither can I run it
as master in my PC in normal or safe modes, it loads MUP? and then shakes
the monitor and then reboots itself ad infinitum.

Off to bed

After you replaced the hives (as per kb307545) and the computer rebooted,
did you then again replace these hives with the ones from the System
Restore Snapshot folder as described in the same article? It's quite
understandable that although the hives from the %Windir%\Repair folder
permitted you to regain the installation and boot successfully that many
things would not work properly, the hives in the Repair folders are
(copies of) the hives that were created when you installed Windows!
Nothing of what you installed after the first boot at time of installation
is recorded in those "ancient" hives! You can look at the dates on the
hives and you will see how old they are.

With the disk mounted in another computer you can or could have bypassed
that first step and proceeded directly to copying the newer hive from the
Snapshot folder to the config folder. The other steps in the article are
there because you cannot access the Snapshot folder from the Recovery
Console, so you have to use the long method to get to the final goal,
which is replacing the damaged hives with the most recent ones available,
the ones that were last backed up by System Restore. Follow the article
through to the end and the results of your repair efforts will be much
more encouraging.

John,

I should have done that before I switced off system restore on this drive to
do a virus check. Luckily I had copied the whole hard drive to my removable
drive, so I was able to get the necessary files from there.
The Network connections folder is now populated and the PC is in the process
of downloading and installing updates (hope there are no problems with IE7).
Many thanks to you and all who contributed to the resolving of this problem,
it has been a most worthwile and "interesting" learning experience.

Regards

Mike H


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