Missing/Corrupt "\Windows\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM" Help

[lt529]

I had recently installed a firewire card into my computer after I formatted.
And it worked for awhile, and I haven't used my computer in about a week. Now when I turn it on, it saids:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\Windows\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

So I tried to put my xp cd to repair or possibly just reformat. But when I boot from my cd, it freezes after the option for the Automated System Recovery. I've pulled out all my PCI cards execpt for my video card and have tried to reset the motherboard. Any ideas on what I should do?

Help would be greatly appreciated.


What's in right now:
AMD XP 1700+
FIC KT748
512mb DDR 2100
ATI 9600pro 128mb

(I know I posted in Technical Support too, please delete that one)

 

[z]

Have you tried hitting F8 during the boot and choosing the "Last known good configuration" option?

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: lt529
I had recently installed a firewire card into my computer after I formatted.
And it worked for awhile, and I haven't used my computer in about a week. Now when I turn it on, it saids:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\Windows\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

So I tried to put my xp cd to repair or possibly just reformat. But when I boot from my cd, it freezes after the option for the Automated System Recovery. I've pulled out all my PCI cards execpt for my video card and have tried to reset the motherboard. Any ideas on what I should do?

Help would be greatly appreciated.


What's in right now:
AMD XP 1700+
FIC KT748
512mb DDR 2100
ATI 9600pro 128mb

(I know I posted in Technical Support too, please delete that one)

Help me understand a bit - you boot from CD, and what do you see? What exactly happens? Do you ever get to the point where you can press ENTER and continue XP Setup (or hit F10 to go to recovery console), ever? If you can't even do that, I'd guess you have a hardware problem.

 

[lt529]

Originally posted by: dclive
Help me understand a bit - you boot from CD, and what do you see? What exactly happens? Do you ever get to the point where you can press ENTER and continue XP Setup (or hit F10 to go to recovery console), ever? If you can't even do that, I'd guess you have a hardware problem.

When I boot from the CD, it goes to the blue screen where you'd normally install windows. It starts loading the files (Kernel, exe files,...) and then freezes. Sometimes it would just go to the part where it gives you an option to load scsi drivers, and then use the automated system recovery (on the white bar on the bottom) but after that it freezes.

 

[doy2001]

I´ve just recover from this problem. What you have to do is the following:
Insert Windows XP cd
Boot from CD
Let the CD load all the drivers and in the next screen press R to repair
Then you´ll enter on some type of dos console.
Type help and you´ll see a command like chdsk
Type chdsk /r and wait... that hopefully will repair your problem...
Good luck! Cheers!

 

[Booty]

The '\Windows\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM' errors are related to registry corruption - I see these pretty frequently. Like doy2001 said, a chkdsk /r might fix it, or there is also another way to repair the registry (there's a detailed MSKB article on it - just search for the error message you're getting on Google).

But it sounds to me like you're never going to get that far - my guess is you've either got bad memory or a bad motherboard. If you can get your hands on some spare memory, I'd try swapping that out first... you could also run memtest or something like that to see if your memory passes.

I'd definitely guess you're having a hardware-related issue, though... I wouldn't be suprised if it was your motherboard (I've never really been a fan of FIC/ECS stuff), but the registry corruption could be caused by a number of things - memory, hard drive, motherboard, even CPU problems.

I guess there's also always a chance that your XP cd is messed up somehow, so maybe you can try getting to the recovery console with a different one. You're pretty much stuck using process of elimination, unfortunately, so hopefully you have access to some spare parts. Good luck!