fixed

[mordantmonkey]

so my friends laptop freezes under safemode boot up.
it starts to list windows files and freezes after it displays

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows\system32\config\system
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows\system32\config\system.log

i can't do a repair install from the XP cd, doesn't give me the option.
can i use recovery mode to transfer some missing/corrupt files?

thanks for any help.

 

[bruceb]

First thing I would check is the Memory .. go to www.memtest.org and get a copy of Memtest86 ... run it
and see if there are any memory issues ... or if you have spare ram, try swapping it .. also see if
the existing memory is loose

 

[thegorx]

I'd suspect a over heat problems if the system had been running for a long time without problems.

 

[mordantmonkey]

yeah i thought it could be memory related. want to try other avenues before i crack open her lappy. plus i think she only has one stick anyway...
weird, it wouldn't allow a repair install... but then i renamed system.log and rebooted. now it says "/system32\config\system is missing try repair install" now when i boot with the xp cd it recognizes a windows installation and allows a repair install. WTF?!

perhaps it was corrupted and windows didn't recognize it as a windows installation? hell if i know.