Question on recovery console in xp pro

[Fiveohhh]

I'm trying to help a friend hes getting

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

I'm helping him over the phone, so its a little tricky, but when it goes into the recovery console it never prompts him to log into the installation it just brings him to c:\ When trying to backup the system file he gets access denied. Also trying to make a new folder he gets access denied. Any reason why it doesn't prompt him to log into the installation, or how to do it from the command prompt?

the drive is an sata raptor with a controller card if it matters

 

[Sianath]

You wont get prompted to log into the machine during a RC boot if the system registry hive cannot be located.

Once you are at a command prompt, can you see the partitions on the disk? If not, you will probably need to hit F6 during the disk boot and provide drivers for the SATA drive in order to get any further with this.

Let me know what you can see and what you can't see, and I'll help you out with what to do next.

 

[Fiveohhh]

at the command prompt he can type dir and get a listing of files, but can't do anything with them. he is installing the sata drivers at the beginning of the installation. we just decided to reinstall everything since the box only gets used for EQ and it was installed on another partition. Thanks for the help, but was easier to reinstall it in this case.

 

[Sianath]

NP.