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windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt

S

supaidaaman

Senior member
my 2nd older computer just showed this error this morning, /windows/system32/config/system is missing or corrupt! My girlfriend has been using this computer and she is a senior with capstone papers and stuff that we really cant lose. Is it possible for me to recover any of this. At this point id be willing to pay for a service to get it back. Help? is it safe to go to the recovery console?
 
You have two options I can think of.

There first is to try doing a Repair with your Windows install CD.

The second is to install this Drive as a slave drive on another/working System. You should be able to view the Data on the drive then.

 

im in the console right now, after choosing R for repair, but its just giving me command line to enter in...

should i do the following steps?

from microsoft:

complete part one, follow these steps:
1. Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.
Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
2. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
4. When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
5. At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following lines, pressing ENTER

after you type each line:
md tmp
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak

delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\default

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default
6. Type exit to quit Recovery Console. Your computer will restart.
 
I've never had much experience with the recovery option myself, as I generally never make the recovery disk.

I usually just use the second method since I have several Systems and lots of Drives. Once XP craps out on a drive, I always feel it's better to just go ahead and reformat it (after recovering any info off it I need) and reinstall - it tends to solve other problems and keeps things cleaner.

 
More often than not, you can just run chkdsk from the recovery console and it will get the original files back, instead of a recent backup.
 
For future reference, the idea of putting the drive in another computer to copy essential files is the most failsafe. The more important the data, the more important you go this route. The idea is to do no writing to the drive until the data is recovered. You could even use recovery software on the drive if necessary. Once you have your files copied elsewhere, then you try to recover the windows installation. This way you have the essential data even if the windows repair goes poorly or there is a hardware (other than total disk failure) problem.


Jim
 
ok so i replaced the system file, but now im missing basically every driver in windows, everything is crazy, but at lease i got my files. Ill just reformat i think. Its been 5 years since i build it, so maybe its time.
 
You might want to consider running a test on her hard drive. The error you got typically is either major windows problems or more often than not, it's the drive developing bad sectors and going bad. Try testing it to see if it's worth reformatting or just buying a new drive and reloading windows.

Good luck 🙂
 
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