UNSOLVED
B
bandit10005
4 Posts
0
8813
March 8th, 2005 23:00
Can't start windows...
HeyHey...
I'm tech-challenged and could use some help...when i go to start windows, i get that black screen with the following message:
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
It then goes on to say:
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.
If I do this, will I lose all of my files and settings? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks
bandit10005
4 Posts
204
0
Posted March 9th, 2005 02:00
Thanks for the links...I followed the information and got stuck pretty much at the beginning. When I type the first command to copy, it get a message that the system cannot find the file specified. It seems that to recover from this, there is the assumption that i have this file somewhere. But where is that?Denny Denham
2 Intern
•
18798 Posts
204
0
Posted March 9th, 2005 04:00
Deleted.Message Edited by Denny Denham on 03-08-2005 10:04 PM
nikkiwoodward
2 Posts
204
0
Posted March 9th, 2005 13:00
I also have the same error message. I did insert the disk, etc. It did try to run, but the same message just appears over and over! It won't allow me to get to any other screen other than the one displaying the original error message. Please HELP!nikkiwoodward
2 Posts
204
0
Posted March 9th, 2005 15:00
If I press any key, it tries to start the CD. It then just comes back with the same error screen.- See if this Microsoft Support solution solves your problem. Also check the follow up link in the above support page here.
bandit10005
4 Posts
204
0
Posted March 9th, 2005 16:00
I tried typing the following at the c prompt so the following is what is displayed on my laptop now...C:\WINDOWS>dir c:\windows\system32\config\systemThe volume in drive C has no labelThe volume serial number is 889a-b8ecDirectory of c:\windows\system32\config\systemNo matching files were found.C:\WINDOWS>Any other suggestions?It appears that you have no SYSTEM (hive). To be sure of this re-run the command leaving out SYSTEM, like this (from C:\windows):
dir c:\windows\system32\config
The SYSTEM 'file' should be there with today's date. If it's not there you could possibly adapt the MS TS article leaving out the first 9 lines in Part 1; I think it would be better to attempt the repair instead. Since this problem deals with the registry you may try to boot to the "Last Known Good" but I have never seen that suggested for your specific error.
Has this been corrected ? Where do you stand now ?
JarmoD
171 Posts
204
0
Posted March 9th, 2005 00:00
You should not lose any files at all but you might lose some settings depending on what the repair has to do.
See this article and this Microsoft artice on repairing Windows XP.