Windows XP startup problem Help ME!!!

[Kerouactivist]

When I startup my system, I get
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing"
\windows\system32\config\system

I have Windows xp Professional

I didn't install anything other than maybe a windows update th last time I shut my computer down.

1.33 athlon
8k7a+
256ddr crucial
60gxp deskstar
ati 64ddr vivo
sbl live 5.1

It says to try and do a system repair but, I don't know how to do this

I get this far into system repair
"Which windows installation would you like to log into
1.c:\windows"

I hit one then enter.
Then I get a C:\winodows prompt and I don't know wtf to do at this point.

any help would be appreciated for my newbie butt

 

[RustyNale]

Make sure your bios is set to boot from cdrom, then reboot. Put your winxp cd into your cdrom. You should get a screen saying : hit any key to boot from cd. Hit any key. Winxp will then go through the process of loading drivers and will arrive at a window where you can run repair. Just follow the prompts to run the repair. You'll have to go back into your bios afterwards to change boot order back to original settings.

 

[mee987]

had this happen to a friend, the only solution I found was to reinstall windows. the problem isnt as easy as it seems. the config\system file is in its correct location, but windows cant find it. I tried booting to a command prompt and replacing the config\system file with a known good one, but it didnt help.

 

[Kerouactivist]

Rustynale,

I get past the point where the drivers load and do what is decribed in my post but, I can't get any further than that, basically I don't know what do at the C:/windows prompt.

I found this article but, I don't understand how the heck it works
Q318159

ANy help would be greatly appreciated, I want to avoid a reinstall..

 

[Kerouactivist]

I finally gave in and called Microsoft support, and the guy walked me through the fix, but now everytime windows loads I get an error that my Via "I think it is my raid driver" is not working and my norton systemworks loads but, will not run autoprotect or e-mail protect, and my zip drive driver will not load right. Thanks microsoft,

He told me that I should contact each of these companies for support and of course it was their fault I was having problems not microsofts. Man that pi$$e$ me off!!!!

 

[mooseAndSquirrel]

Well, you can try here for the via drivers. As for Systemworks, I can't help you, but I have a number of buddies who have given up on this suite under XP. It seems to cause more problems than it fixes.

But here's one thing I'd do for sure: get a copy of Ghost and use it to copy your working XP config, either to another partition or to CDR. Then if you ever need to restore XP you have a good base to work from.

 

[Zukatah]

I'm a big fan of doing a fresh install of Windows. It fixes any problems that you had, your computer runs faster and you get rid of all those stupid stuff that you install when you get a new computer =)

 

[mee987]

what version of systemworks are you using? i believe that the only version that officially supports winxp is 2002

 

[Kerouactivist]

Yeah, I'm using 2002.

I also am a big fan of the clean and fresh installs and I would do one but, iT usually takes me awhile and I have homework that I had to get done today, which required the use of the specific computer I was using,and that is the only reason why I didn't want to do a fresh install but, when I get time I definitly will. Tommorrow, I will backup everything important and reinstall windows.

Which reminds me, if I due a low level format that still clears ou the registry right

Also, I forgot to add that the guy at microsoft put a lot of blame on the highpoint drivers and told me that windows XP wasn't designed to support Raid highpoint drivers blah blah blah.... Even though I told him that everything was up to date!!

 

[CraigRT]

ah yes, typical.. I installed the critical updates on a new WinXP system during the first day of fresh installation only to be greeted with a similar error and a following format.. needless to say i hate the OS, and will never ever run it on my home system until i know they have fixed these ridiculous problems.. I have now had to format that PC twice in 2 months.. both times i could not tell you what cause the problems... no clue at all. it just decided to break... XP is a POS!!!!

rant is over..

 

[Kerouactivist]

What made me so made was is that the guy was trying to blame me or another company for what happened.

I think Microsoft needs to fix this problem, becuase I read of countless occurences of this problem on the web today. Under all kinds of different Setups, AMD, INTEL, different motherboard chipsets different kinds of Ram, HD's Software...ETC. The Problem is their OS and Apparently once you get this problem once it will happen again. Because from what I read on the internet it is some sort of registry problem in XP where the OS can't sort things out right once their is a certain amount of info in the registry.

Man I wish Microsoft would get cracking on this one!!!!

 

[mee987]

this isnt meant to directly attack you, but the only systems I see having trouble with winxp are those that were buggy and unreliable in previous MS OS's as well.
this particular problem the thread is about I have only seen in one system so far -- a POS gateway that got a BSOD every 20 minutes or so in both win2k and win98se

 

[Kerouactivist]

Really, I haven't had many problems with my system other than this, Unreliable ATI Drivers, and a Zip drive issue (was a driver issue will all 686b boards).

I don't think that constitutes a buggy system but, I may be wrong. If you do a google search of
"windows\system32\config\system"

you will find hundreds if not more, of people that have ran into this problem