Re: Corrupt registry in an OEM version of XP



Mike Hyndman wrote:

"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.

You're welcome, glad to see that you got it fixed.

John

.

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