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windows is corrupt

N

NoToRiOuS1

Golden Member
i had been having a problem with turning my computer off. it would never turn off when i do shut down. the screen would just stay at 'windows is shutting down' or windows is restarting...etc because of this i was forced to do a hard shut down by holding down the power key.

i think that messed up some of the files.

can someone tell me the steps i would have to take to run throgh the recovery console and fix this?

when i turn the compy on it says the following files are corrupt:

/windows/system32/config/system

any help is appreciated. thanks guys 🙂

edit:
ran recover console and did chkdsk and fixboot...that didn't help
ran WD HD Daignostic prog....no errors came up

but i still get the same error message 🙁:
Windows could not start because the following file is missing:
\windows\system32\config\system
 
Doing a hard restart shouldn't corrupt anything, but all the things you describe could be caused by a failing hard disk... how old is it?

You can get at the recovery console by booting the windows CD and choosing the right option, but unfortunatly i don't think it will let you just replace the config files. If you put the hard drive in another windows machine you should be able to read it and replace files, and you could do a backup of all your important stuff too, just in case the drive does die.
 
its a 36gb raptor. still has a year or two of warranty left on it. i was just going to install windows on another HD and try and do what you just mentioned. i just hope it works :/

BTW, lets say i install windows on an IDE drive. and lets say i boot to it. once i'm in windows, will the computer see my SATA drive or am i going to have to install the driver for it like you have to when you hit F6 during the boot from CD process?

thanks again for your help atheus. its very much appreciated.
 
Hi,
It is possible that SATA would be seen, but if it isn't, you can run your chipset drivers, and that should include the option to install SATA support if you need it.
 
well, i tried to install the drivers...still no go
then i tried to install windows on a IDE drive....still a no go...it says the HD is corrupt....which isn't really possible since i JUST opened it up from a sealed retail box. right now im doing a full partition format through windows setup....we'll see if that works

do you guys think it could be my mobo?
 
Can you dl the yoot from your drive manufacturer's website - just to check it isn't the drive -
Its free, and might save a lot of time.
 
Originally posted by: montag451
Can you dl the yoot from your drive manufacturer's website - just to check it isn't the drive -
Its free, and might save a lot of time.
Click to expand...


im sorry montag i dont understand. im sure its just mispelled but what were you trying to refer to when you said 'yoot'

also....now i have been able to install windows on my IDE HD. but when i try and boot windows, it gives me a BSOD and says something about an unmountable boot volume

also...i used the disc utility provided by seagate to partition the drive from 120 to 60-30-30 and now when i run windows setup..it only sees the one 30 GB partition.
but when i run the seagate utility it only sees the 120gb HD shows its completely empty and that there are no other partitions on it.

so XP wont boot from my raptor.....xp wont boot from an IDE drive....my other OS wont boot from an IDE drive....could it be my mobo?

thanks again you guys for the help
 
sorry - can you download the utility - that was what I meant, but it looks like you did that.

Can you unplug all the drives except for one, and one optical.
Disconnect all pci cards/usb.
Disable onboard peripherals in BIOS.
Now, can you rerun the xp installation.
 
Make sure what with all the swapping out of hdd's that you get the jumper settings on the back of the drive correct.
Also, the one you have in at the moment, what does it show up in BIOS as?
What actually is it?
 
Currently I have a seagate 120gb IDE drive hooked up to it. It shows up correctly in the bios. Its set at the primary master. my optical is secondary master since its on the second IDE connector. the jumper i tried it on master and then cable select...still had the same problems

the HD is a Seagate 120GB IDE 7200.9
 
You can boot to the XP cd and when you see the Welcome to setup press the letter R
You will get a dos prompt
Then type "chkdsk /p" without the quotes and hit enter
When that is done type "fixboot" and hit enter
"Y" and enter at the prompt
Then type "exit" and hit enter
The system will now reboot into Windows

If for some reason that don't work for you, you can boot to the recovery console like above and...
Type "chkdsk /r" then enter
When done type "exit" and hit enter.
This will take longer, but the system should boot back into Windows.
 
i will give that a go. will let you know if it works or not

but i would just like you to know that you rock my world montag😛
in all seriousness, thank you very much for your help. i can't thank you enough 🙂
 
Montag451 - I saw yoot in another post and it took a long time , but I got it. For some reason, when the OP said "I'm sure it's misspelled , but what is it" that made my day. I'm still smiling so thank you both.

To the OP, while it sounds like a HD problem, give memtest86 run from a dos boot disk a try since mem problems can mask themselves as disk errors which then become real disk problems when the data is rewritten from memory. If you get failures and have several sticks of memory try them one at a time


Jim
 
I just gave on up on this one for the time being. I'm going to RMA the board from Jetway.

But yea I guess running memtest can't hurt. I will do that.

I have OCZ stuff in my rig. I have been running it at stock everything. Nothing in my system besides the video card was overclocked. BAH...so frustrating.

Thank you for all the input guys.
Montag, I've yet to try the Repair functionality.

Currently, I'm running Vista on here and it seems to be running fine.

My main problem right now is the fact that I put in a new Seagate 120GB HD. Partitioned it so it was 60-30-30
and now for some reason only 30GB shows up. I dont know how to make it go back to showing the other two partitions.
 
MONTAG:
i tried both the steps. neither helped. when i start the computer, it still says:
Windows could not start because the following file is missing:
\windows\system32\config\system

that doesn't really help as it doesn't tell me which file it is exactly thats missing. even if it did, i dont know what else to do 🙁
 
This error simply means that one of your registry "hives" is corrupt. You need to replace the corrupt hive with its safety backup. Note: The safety backup is the hive that was created when you first installed windows. No updates have been made to it since you installed the OS, so any changes you've made since then will have to be reinstalled (drivers for hardware, etc.)

Here's how to get back to working order:

Fix for This problem...follow instructions carefully


Note to all: Everyone should have a copy of the freeware utility known as ERUNT. What it does is make safety copies of your registry hives each day you boot into windows, so if you ever had to restore a corrupt hive like above, it would be much more current than the one in the Windows Repair folder. http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
 
Note to all: Everyone should have a copy of the freeware utility known as ERUNT. What it does is make safety copies of your registry hives each day you boot into windows, so if you ever had to restore a corrupt hive like above, it would be much more current than the one in the Windows Repair folder. http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
Click to expand...

Or you can just get them from your last system restore point...

 
Try Last Known Good Config mode (furiously press F8 after POST and try to get that menu) if you can get to that point. Otherwise you can try fixmbr and fixboot in Recovery Console. You mentioned you did fixmbr, try fixboot as well, I think it's more applicable. You may need to do a chkdsk /f X: (X:=your Windows partition) in the Recovery Console. The /f will perform a fix.

Note: by pressing F8 some mobos like both of my ASUS ones will display a boot partition menu. Just press escape (I think) to select the default boot drive but keep pressing F8 after that boot menu disappears. Another Windows-specific one will appear (if Windows isn't really screwed up). Then select Last Known Good Config.
 
Originally posted by: xtknight
Try Last Known Good Config mode (furiously press F8 after POST and try to get that menu) if you can get to that point. Otherwise you can try fixmbr and fixboot in Recovery Console. You mentioned you did fixmbr, try fixboot as well, I think it's more applicable. You may need to do a chkdsk /f X: (X:=your Windows partition) in the Recovery Console. The /f will perform a fix.

Note: by pressing F8 some mobos like both of my ASUS ones will display a boot partition menu. Just press escape (I think) to select the default boot drive but keep pressing F8 after that boot menu disappears. Another Windows-specific one will appear (if Windows isn't really screwed up). Then select Last Known Good Config.
Click to expand...

There is no issue with the hard drive's MBR or boot sector; the issue is as Slikkster and bsobel have posted - one of the key registry files is corrupt.

To fix this, simply do as S.'s link suggests - rename the original sam/software/security/system files found in c:\windows\system32\config, and put the same files from c:\windows\repair in their place. That will give you the registry at the time of the last install. If that works, then, while booted into that 'version' of Windows, change and open permissions on c:\system volume information, and copy the most recent sam\software\system\security files in there to c:\windows\system32\config\new.

Finally, boot back into recovery console, and copy the four files from c:\windows\system32\config\new into c:\windows\system32\config.

Reboot, and you're all set.
 
Originally posted by: Slikkster
This error simply means that one of your registry "hives" is corrupt. You need to replace the corrupt hive with its safety backup. Note: The safety backup is the hive that was created when you first installed windows. No updates have been made to it since you installed the OS, so any changes you've made since then will have to be reinstalled (drivers for hardware, etc.)

Here's how to get back to working order:

Fix for This problem...follow instructions carefully


Note to all: Everyone should have a copy of the freeware utility known as ERUNT. What it does is make safety copies of your registry hives each day you boot into windows, so if you ever had to restore a corrupt hive like above, it would be much more current than the one in the Windows Repair folder. http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
Click to expand...


if you were a woman, i would kiss you...you know that...
i cannot thank you enough. i am speechless. i did exactly what you said and it worked....perfectly 🙂
thank you and thank you to montag and everyone else who assisted me in this situation.
merry belated christmas guys 🙂
 
Very good, and glad to help. Just doublecheck that all your hardware works correctly, as you may have to reinstall some drivers. But, Windows should tell you as much (a la "detected a new device" messages, etc.)

Once you have it all set up, download and install that Erunt application, so you'll always have current backups of your registry hives.
 
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