Windows Xp reinstall ends in registry problems??

[supremeone77]

Ok, I wanted to reinstall windows because my friend had a slipstreamed disk he used and it had everything I needed without downloading all of the updates and whatever. And was going through the installation when I got a prompt that I was missing pc-couffin file. So I had to stop installation and boot up windows on my other partition to find that file. Once I did I went back but then I got an error before the setup started again saying: "Missing or Corrupted system32/config/system file" Didn't know how that happened. But I read up on this issue and it could be faulty ram, hardware or power failure etc.

My guess is since my computer has booted up a few times with the "Failed memory test" it could be that. But overall system seems healthy. After that new error I frantically looked for the way to repair/replace it as well as doing an image backup of my systems current state incase more things went wrong. I hear system restore keeps snapshots with the registry files and they are also in the repair folder. Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky with the system restore option as I have it off. But there are files in the repair folder, but the size difference warded me off from trying to use those as substitutes. I haven't tried the fix boot command yet, I hear that helps sometimes. Only other thing I can think of is to repair the registry. But since I can't boot up on that partition I'd have to employ some method that accesses hives stored on other partitions and does repairs on them. Only tool I found that does that is Registry Tool but it costs like $150 or something ;(

I didn't know a simple reinstall could go wrong. And I don't want to have to lose all my settings and application data, and have to reinstall all my programs. Since it's only a small error, maybe bad boot portion of registry. And since I have the majority of other healthy files and registry settings. Is there a way I can either fix the bad part or do a fresh install and incorporate the good settings later? Thanks

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: supremeone77
Ok, I wanted to reinstall windows because my friend had a slipstreamed disk he used and it had everything I needed without downloading all of the updates and whatever. And was going through the installation when I got a prompt that I was missing pc-couffin file. So I had to stop installation and boot up windows on my other partition to find that file. Once I did I went back but then I got an error before the setup started again saying: "Missing or Corrupted system32/config/system file" Didn't know how that happened. But I read up on this issue and it could be faulty ram, hardware or power failure etc.

My guess is since my computer has booted up a few times with the "Failed memory test" it could be that. But overall system seems healthy. After that new error I frantically looked for the way to repair/replace it as well as doing an image backup of my systems current state incase more things went wrong. I hear system restore keeps snapshots with the registry files and they are also in the repair folder. Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky with the system restore option as I have it off. But there are files in the repair folder, but the size difference warded me off from trying to use those as substitutes. I haven't tried the fix boot command yet, I hear that helps sometimes. Only other thing I can think of is to repair the registry. But since I can't boot up on that partition I'd have to employ some method that accesses hives stored on other partitions and does repairs on them. Only tool I found that does that is Registry Tool but it costs like $150 or something ;(

I didn't know a simple reinstall could go wrong. And I don't want to have to lose all my settings and application data, and have to reinstall all my programs. Since it's only a small error, maybe bad boot portion of registry. And since I have the majority of other healthy files and registry settings. Is there a way I can either fix the bad part or do a fresh install and incorporate the good settings later? Thanks

No offense, but there are so many ways this went wrong I can't begin to suggest how to fix it. But if I understand the cliffs are:

a) System has known memory issues
b) You stopped an install in middle
c) You have system restore turned off
d) You believe its a 'small error'

First off, fixboot isn't going to do anything. The system registry have is the one that contains information about your hardware configuration. It's need for the OS to function. If system restore was on, pulling backup out would be fairly simple, but given it's not this gets fairly nasty.

Do you by chance have a reasonably sized 'sytem' file in \windows\repair? Thats about the only chance I can see (copy that to windows\system32\config) after backing up the bad file. Then do a reinstall on top.

 

[supremeone77]

Seems like 3.5 megs for the file in the repair folder and 12.5 megs for the one that got corrupt. Btw when I said I believed it was a small error, what I meant was the cause of it is probably a few invalid entries for the boot up instructions, and since I know there's registry repairers out there, I figured it wouldn't be too hard to repair this using those types of tools. But it is a big error judging from the result of damage to even a small portion of the reg file, has done.

I have a question though, what is the purpose of each hive? System is contains information about the hardware configuration and then Software contains all the settings for my programs? And what about the rest?

And so then there's no way to rebuild/repair the corrupt portion of the registry? And no way to reuse the good portion of it after a clean install? Or like I was hoping some registry edit program that loads the hives and finds the errors? Or manually fixing it by knowing what settings would make the bootup mess up.

 

[bsobel]

I have a question though, what is the purpose of each hive? System is contains information about the hardware configuration and then Software contains all the settings for my programs? And what about the rest?

Two others are security related, there is the default user hive (the basis for what each user gets when an account is created).

And so then there's no way to rebuild/repair the corrupt portion of the registry? And no way to reuse the good portion of it after a clean install? Or like I was hoping some registry edit program that loads the hives and finds the errors? Or manually fixing it by knowing what settings would make the bootup mess up.

You can try a registry fix. An install on top even on the small hive is your best bet. Since it's not the software hive your apps and settings should mostly be ok.

 

[Smilin]

just FYI the Windows XP and later regedit will repair registries upon open.

See "load hive" in regedit help.

You should probably fix your hardware problem and run a chkdsk before you really try much though or you'll just be back here again soon.

 

[supremeone77]

Alright I'll give that a shot. The chkdsk thing but I dont' know about memory because for the most part things are fine.

But anyways someone was saying windows repairs the registry file automatically? Don't know if that's true or else why would they have tons of repair programs. I loaded the hive in before and I don't think it repaired it. Also want to ask again if anyone knows of another program besides registry tool that can repair hives on another partition. Or maybe they have registry tool and could repair my file ;o

Also what is the difference between the 2 files of the same name. For instance:
system and system.sav. Is the one with the .sav a backup file?

Thanks.

 

[supremeone77]

Hi I loaded the corrupt system file and it seemed to repair it by getting another copy from a file or log, atleast thats what it said. Went from 12.5 megs to 2.6 megs. But when I opened it up it only had 2 control sets and both were blank.

I'm wondering why can't I just try that system.sav file? It looks like it's an exactly copy, it was the same file size as teh reuglar system file. And it actually loaded in regedit and I could see all the keys. Still don't understand how they differ.

Anyways so far I tried the file from the repair folder. It booted past the "missing or corrupt config/system file" screen, and past the Windows XP logo but then it just stopped before getting to the next screen and restarted. Seems like it was nearly there. How can I diagnose the error in the registry file that's making it reboot.

Btw this repair file I think is recently new so probably wouldn't have to change much stuff.

 

[RebateMonger]

It's almost impossible to fail a bootup BIOS memory test. You'd have to have memory that is almost completely non-functional. In twenty-five years of PC use, I don't recall ever seeing a PC fail the bootup test, including those with memory that was bad enough to make installation of Windows and OS/2 a no-go.

 

[supremeone77]

Yeah I don't know, lets just ignore that. So what keys do you think are causing windows xp not to boot up? I might start going through them all manually and seeing if any raise any alerts for me.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: supremeone77
Yeah I don't know, lets just ignore that. So what keys do you think are causing windows xp not to boot up? I might start going through them all manually and seeing if any raise any alerts for me.

:roll: Yea, lets ignore the bad memory and hand edit the registry... Fix the underlying problem, your approach isnt gonna work....

 

[supremeone77]

Look at what rebatemonger said. It's very unlikely, probably just a glitch. I only get that message 1 out of 4 times when I boot up. Also besides that "error message" I don't have any noticeable problems with corrupt files or anything.

Anyhoo, most programs that attempt registry repairs seem to only do it locally and not on other windows setups. Just curious if you could temporarily replace your registry files in config folder with another pc's or just the system ones. Do most of the fixes being done occur in memory and saved later or are the edits done with the actual files directly?

If anyone knows which registry entries have the most significant impact, let me know and I'll check them out.