XP: corrupt system file. Am I SOL?

[ObiDon]

I was just minding my own business 😉 and I heard the windows alert pop-up noise and my computer rebooted.
Now, I get the message...
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\windows\system32\config\system
Is there any way to fix it? I can't get into safe mode and the recovery console doesn't seem to do me much good.
It's a good thing I occasionally make backups of my system partition. I guess I'll just pick off my important files and use my backup. What a PITA! 🙁

 

[MrMilney]

Try this MS Knowledge Base Article. And good luck!

 

[ObiDon]

Darn it, searching KB was the first thing I did but I didn't think it would be registry related. Usually the error message specifies the registry as the problem when it is. Well, I'll give it a try and see what happens. Thanks! 🙂

 

[pac1085]

This has been happening to my other computer quite often. Just do what the MS site says(its not as hard as it looks), and as long as you have system restore enabled you should be all set.

 

[ObiDon]

Yeah, it doesn't look too bad. I only copied the "system" file from the repair directory. It was enough to get me back into windows to make my important file-grabbing a LOT easier. After I'm done, I'll just use my Ghost image and be back in business.

It's a good thing that the only thing that is really on my Windows partition is my OS. All my games and most of my apps go on a different partition. It makes it a lot faster and easier to make backups!

Edit: My "important" files that I was trying to get are just pretty much junk that I toss in my C: directory or desktop before I sort through them. That and my Dungeon Siege saves. Nothing REALLY important. *That* stuff is in my Ghost image or on a different drive 😉