"BrianF" 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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