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Precision 690 reinstalling OS problems
Hello all.
I am the IT technician at a precision moulding company in south Wales, UK.
We have a Dell Precision 690 PC that runs software to operate a measurement machine. Unfortunately, this PC has to have XP Pro installed to run the specific software.
Very recently one of my users switched on the PC after the Christmas break and it appeared to boot normally until it shut down suddenly. After retrying to boot the following error appeared:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair."
My initial instinct was that the HDD had failed or there was a problem with the SATA connection. But then, after opening the case I was greeted to about an inch of dust covering the motherboard and components. So then I removed the dust, removed RAM and HDD, replaced SATA cables and removed static charge (taking the BIOS battery out and holding down the power button). I tried booting the PC up again. Same error. I noticed that the HDD was plugged into the HDD_0 port as opposed to the SATA ports. Had a look in the BIOS and SATA were disabled but there were no options for the HDD ports (I have little experience with this setup).
I managed to get my hands on the OS setup disk and attempted to repair as stated in the error message. However, during the OS setup an error message appeared saying that there is no HDD detected. I tried the same method with a different HDD to see if the problem was the original HDD but the same error appeared. I tried the SATA ports instead of the HDD_0 port on the motherboard but still no joy.
After doing some reading I realise that it could be something to do with the RAID configuration, which I have no experience with.
Any help/advice or information would be greatly appreciated - I'm pulling my hair out!
Thank you.
RoHe
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January 9th, 2015 15:00
Read me about recovering from missing/corrupt \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM error.
My bad, that doesn't apply to systems with OEM XP.
The HDD needs to be connected to HDD_0 on the motherboard. Only non-hard drive SATA devices (eg, SATA optical drives) should be attached to the connectors labeled SATA.
And according to the manual, the SAS controller defaults to ON in BIOS setup. When you removed the battery, you reset everything to the defaults. So if you're not using a SAS controller, this option need to be set to Off.
XP doesn't natively support SATA drives, but the default SATA Operation setting in BIOS on this system is AHCI. In order run a Repair after booting from the XP CD, you probably need to change SATA Operation to ATA and save that change in BIOS. And after you finish the repair, during the very first reboot, you'll have to go back into BIOS setup to change SATA Operation back to AHCI.
And after the Repair, go to the Windows update site and let it scan your system for any updates/fixes that need to be reinstalled...
EDITED
ProvIT
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January 12th, 2015 01:00
Hello Ron,
Thanks so much for your reply.
Unfortunately, I've tried changing the SATA operation to ATA and run the repair from the OS Disk but the HDD is still not recognised. I'm assuming there was an SAS controller in use when the PC was working fine.
It's so frustrating not being able to identify the problem.
Any other suggestions?
Thank you.
ProvIT
3 Posts
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January 12th, 2015 01:00
Forgot to mention that I attempted to run Hard Drive Diagnostics but the function is not supported.
RoHe
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January 12th, 2015 14:00
When you ran the repair with SATA set to ATA, was that with the SAS controller on or off in BIOS?
Try it with SAS set the other way..?