help windows wont start

Hector's House · 22-05-2006, 12:21

just switched on my main pc and its come up with this,

windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt :
\windows\system32\config\system
then it talks about repairing it with the setup disc how do i do that?

Aragorn · 22-05-2006, 12:50

Depends how computer saavy you are - it's not a trivial recovery

This is an MS KB article here which you could follow. You will need your WinXP setup disk - hope you have one.
Alternatively, if you are not confident messing with recovery consoles, you may need to take it to a decent local computer repair shop.

---------- Post added at 13:50 ---------- Previous post was at 13:48 ----------

The last time I had this was due to a disk hardware problem, so it 'might' not be the only corruption.

Hector's House · 22-05-2006, 13:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aragorn

Depends how computer saavy you are - it's not a trivial recovery

This is an MS KB article here which you could follow. You will need your WinXP setup disk - hope you have one.
Alternatively, if you are not confident messing with recovery consoles, you may need to take it to a decent local computer repair shop.

---------- Post added at 13:50 ---------- Previous post was at 13:48 ----------

The last time I had this was due to a disk hardware problem, so it 'might' not be the only corruption.

Thanks Aragorn I'll have a look at it, I've never used the recovery console before but I wont let the panic set in until i've read it! lol

22-05-2006, 13:13

just do a repair install of xp its simplest way,
By the time you read and digest instructions the repair install will be finished lol

Hector's House · 22-05-2006, 13:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

just do a repair install of xp its simplest way,
By the time you read and digest instructions the repair install will be finished lol

I've just read the KB and it looks scarey!do you mean overwrite it or do a completely new installation? if I can overwrite it where does it give me the option to do it?

**Maggy** · 22-05-2006, 13:31

Well The person(Paul) who usually rides to my rescue is not online at the moment.But Zingy is pretty helpful and in fact has won one of the the Most Helpful Post awards in the past.

I bet he can get you sorted.If he's not too busy.

Aragorn · 22-05-2006, 13:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hector's House

I've just read the KB and it looks scarey!do you mean overwrite it or do a completely new installation? if I can overwrite it where does it give me the option to do it?

You can do a repair install like this -
Start the computer from the XP Setup CD
Press ENTER to set up Windows XP, and then press R to repair the selected installation.
It will try to rebuild the registry and load XP over the top of your existing files, but will keep programs intact and most of your settings. Iirc, if your setup disk is not SP2 you would need reapply the SP afterwards.

Hector's House · 22-05-2006, 14:19

Oh dear! this is what i get

22-05-2006, 14:27

is it a sata drive? can you get into bios and check the status of the hard drive there? Can you boot from the xp cd either by setting cd to boot first in bios or pressing f11 and selecting cd rom?

Aragorn · 22-05-2006, 14:28

Are you still getting the same error when you try to start without the CD, eg 'system file missing or corrupt'? or does the BIOS fail to find the disk as well?
It could be the boot sector (MBR) or partition table has been corrupted. Either way it's not looking hopeful.
Can you get into the recovery console and login to to the windows installation?

Hector's House · 22-05-2006, 14:29

I've just had a thought it might be because my hard drives are in a raid array and I need to do the F6 to install the driver

Aragorn · 22-05-2006, 14:31

Zing - that window is from the XP setup - eg it does boot from the CD!

---------- Post added at 15:31 ---------- Previous post was at 15:30 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hector's House

I've just had a thought it might be because my hard drives are in a raid array and I need to do the F6 to install the driver

Yes - if the RAID driver isn't on your CD, you would need to F6 it.

22-05-2006, 14:33

yeah I know thats why I asked if its a sata drive.

Hector's House · 22-05-2006, 14:37

Aragorn - the bios finds the HDDs Zinglebarb I'm using the laptop at the mo

22-05-2006, 14:39

so you got 2 drives in an array is the array striped or mirrored? it sounds to me like 1 of the drives is fubared and the array has broken. Can you access your raid controls and see if this is the case? If it is then you have to assertain which drive has died and remove this and create a single drive.This of course is worst case just how it sounds to me

Hope to be found to be totally wrong and an total noob on this of course