A little help from our friends at Google:

Error Message: "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEMced."

Translation: This message, which is sometimes also followed by the error message, "System hive error," indicates that Windows was unable to load the System hive (Windows Registry file) at boot time because the System hive is too big, badly fragmented (scattered across multiple locations on a hard drive), or missing.

This problem occurs during an early phase of the boot process, during which available memory is limited. The Registry must share this limited memory with other boot processes, including loading the kernel (core portion of an operating system), boot drivers, and other components. If the System hive is too large to fit into the available memory, or is so fragmented that it prevents complete loading, you'll see this error message.

Solution: Use the Recovery Console to try to create a nonfragmented (or at least, less fragmented) version of the System hive. Insert your Win2000 installation CD and reboot your computer. At the beginning of the boot process, when you see the option to Press Any Key to boot from CD, press any key. When the Welcome To Setup screen appears, press R to repair Win2000. On the next screen, press C to start the Recovery Console. Select the installation you want to repair. Enter your administrator password at the prompt. The Recovery Console will display a command prompt. Type the following, one line at a time, and press ENTER after each line.

cd System32\config

ren system system.old

ren system.alt systemalt.old

copy system.old system

copy systemalt.old system.alt

exit

reboot

If you still see the error message, you will need to restore a copy of the System hive. Follow the above instructions to boot into the Recovery Console. If you have never created a Registry backup, you will need to restore the default System hive. If you have backed up the Registry, you should restore the System hive from the backup.

If you have never backed up the Registry, type the following at the command prompt, one line at a time, and press ENTER after each line.

copy c:\winnt\repair\system c:\winnt
\system32\config\

y

exit

If you have backed up the Registry, type the following at the command prompt, one line at a time, and press ENTER after each line.

copy c:\winnt\repair\regbackup\system c:\winnt\system32\config\

y

exit

You may need to reinstall any hardware or software you installed after you last backed up the Registry.

If you still cannot boot into Win2000, consider reinstalling Win2000 or editing the Registry to reduce its size.

Thanks for the information. However when I get to the screen where it asks me if I would like to start windows 2000 or recovery console, and I choose windows 2000 the W2K disk is not able to read or something because after the whole "file is corrupt" it says something like "on the next screen press r" There is no new screen after it. For the recovery console, I have followed your instructions, but when renaming the file, for some reason it says the file can not be renamed. That's it for now... thank's again

Your drive is probably bad and renaming files wont help.

Get a new drive and try a clean install then once windows is back up and running add the bad drive as a secondary and try to recover data off of it.


Somewhere along the road people have become convinced that
scandisk and chkdsk and reinstalling will fix physical damage on a dying drive.

The truth is It wont and never has and in most cases makes things worse not better.

Drives die after a few years and many new drives only come with a 1 year
warranty. That should tell you a bit about expected life.