Help with Windows 2000 STOP error!

[Migroo]

I get the following error when I try and boot into Windows 2000.

STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or it's log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

Anyone have any ideas why I might be getting this?

Background
I have exterienced this STOP error 3 times on this machine. It occurs every time I try and boot, so the machine is completely unusable. The first time I experienced this, I re-installed the OS and it was fixed... Until it happened again - I re-installed the OS again (space of about 2 months between errors). With this install I was very careful not to install anything risky, so it was just Windows 2000 and Office 2000.

I came into the office a few days ago and found this PC would not boot. I am at my wits end - surely this must be a hardware problem as it has happened in different installations...

Hardware
AMD Athlon XP 1500+
Gigabyte GA-7DXR - AMD 761 Chipset (with latest BIOS version (F7 or F8 I think)
256mb Crucial DDR Memory (PC2100)
10 GB Maxtor drive
ATi Rage Fury
Intel NIC

Has anybody got any ideas?

Please help

Thanks

 

[Mitzi]

Hi mate,

Always willing to help a fellow Brit

There is a very long thread about this issue here. If you look at the bottom of this thread there are a number of posts on how people solved the problem.

The error you are encountering could be caused be a large number of things - bad HDD, bad RAM, onboard RAID controllers etc.

Good luck!

 

[Migroo]

Heya Mitzi.

Wow, yeah thats a long thread. I'm gonna paste it down into Word and go through it so I can get off pay-per-minute dial up

I'll get back to you though. Thanks a lot

But yeah - its a RAID board I have...