file is missing or corrupt

Question

All of a sudden when I try to boot up my Inspirion E1505 notebook I get the message... windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM I tried to do the Dell PC restore ... the ctrl/f11, to restore to factory condition, but still that message would appear after the Dell splash. Due to the fact I never received the back up cd's when I purchased my laptop, I had to order from their web page and I was very quickly sent only one cd. It is purple and says Operating System on it. Wasn't there a drivers and utilities cd too? I'm honestly not sure what to do next to get it to work?! Luckily I have never really put anything (except loading a few software that I do have the back ups to) on it, so if I must do a clean install, that wont be traumatic. Well, a little bit, yes, because I have never done that before. Do you think it was a virus that caused this? If so very odd because I had ZoneAlarm Security Suite on that machine.

ejn63 · Answer

The first thing to do is boot, press F12, load the Dell diagnostics and run an extended test of the hard drive. You will likely find your drive failing.

If it is failing and under warranty, report the error to Dell and they'll ship you a replacement.

If it's out of warranty, any notebook SATA drive will work as a replacement.

You can order the OS CD here:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/en/backupcd_form?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&redirect=1

jstdrop · Answer

Thank you! I ran the diagnostic as suggested and yes it failed. I bought this notebook 6/10/06, How long does the warranty last? And I do have the purple OS CD already. Only that one was sent to me.

sshadowbaness · Answer

try a windows recovery its easy u need help i can it will take bout a hour or more Message Edited by sshadowbaness on 11-02-2007 04:28 AM

sshadowbaness · Answer

hard drive isnt even that expensive but what size is it? ebay it

jstdrop · Answer

Wow, 12 month warrenty, and it craps out on me in 17 months? Good grief... then that means I just spent $100/mo to use this laptop that I honestly did nothing to.... except load a game or two to play.

Does this mean I have to take it into the shop and basically get an entire new hard drive? Is that another cpl hundred? What the heck caused this to happen ro begin with?

ejn63 · Answer

There's no point in trying the Windows recovery on a drive that is failing - it will either fail outright or fail shortly.

The default warranty is 12 months unless you bought a longer warranty when you purchased the system.

ejn63 · Answer

If you choose to take the system to a shop to have the drive replaced and Windows reloaded, yes, you can expect it to cost about $300. It's the same as with your car - you can buy the brake pads for $50 and install them yourself, or pay a mechanic $300 to do it for you. A hard drive will cost $50-100. They are easy to install; the time consuming part is the reinstallation and reconfiguration of Windows; you'll have to decide whether to do it yourself or pay a shop a couple of hundred dollars for the labor and time to do it for you. Installing the drive:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins6400/en/sm/hddrive.htm#wp1123687

Message Edited by ejn63 on 11-01-2007 07:46 PM

sshadowbaness · Answer

i had this kind of problem on my desktop i tried installing motherboard drivers for my nforce 2 well nvidia didn't list them any more so there a pain to install and i installed the wrong one or something like that and it actually corrupted a important driver in the system folder and i figured out how to use the recovery console   here's what u should do put ur windows installation CD in and when it says boot CD press a key then when it pops up the install press r to go into recovery console then type in chkdsk /r and that should scan ur hard drive to see if a file is corrupt and it will replace it automatically hope this helps good luck

jstdrop · Answer

OK... I think I can do this by myself. I have a desktop dimension functioning , so I'm not in panic mode right now. I'd be interested in learning how o do this on my own too.

One more question.. when I ordered the back up cd's, I was only sent the purple Operating System cd. What about drivers and utilities that it says I need to load too?

jstdrop · Answer

Well, thank you all for your help.

I certainly have no plans to ever buy a Dell again now if the hard drive (that you have totally left alone to default, only read your email on) fails not even 6 months after the warrenty is up.

I'm really very disappointed by all of this...sigh!

ejn63 · Answer

All of those can be downloaded from support.dell.com. You will need at least the chipset driver, notebook system software, and whatever method you use to connect to the Internet (LAN, wireless or modem). You can then go online and download the rest of the drivers.

ejn63 · Answer

If that's the case, you won't buy from any other vendor either; Dell has nothing to do with the manufacture of hard drives - all notebook vendors buy drives from the same six suppliers. Your chances of a hard drive failure are no different with Sony, Gateway, Toshiba, HP, Compaq, Lenovo or any other - they all use the same drives.

jcn77056 · Answer

I hope you haven't destroyed your hard drive yet.  I just posted instructions I used to recover from this on someone's laptop here.   At least , Bart PE can read the files on your system and get them off.  The key is to not do anything until you have your files backed up.

jstdrop · Answer

When I asked my friend about BartPE he said: 'Yeah I've used it, since reimaging wont work (the F12 trick) I doubt it's gonna help much.' Why do you think that will work?

jstdrop · Answer

You're right, my friend said the same thing basically..."it's like buying light bulbns, some just will burn out before others and we really never know why that is, we just have to replace the lightbulb."

I looked on Dell even for the hard drive I currently have on my laptop and yes, it's only less the $60, not bad at all, so I'm just going to attempt doing this.

Thank you for all your very fast help... Dell Support rocks! :-)

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file is missing or corrupt

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