XP: STOP: c0000218 (Registry File Failure); HELP!

[ChrisBeat]

After a few weeks of happy XP-ing, unexpectantly the following message appeared during boot after which direct rebooting started to generate a endless boot-attempt loop.

STOP: c0000218 (Registry File Failure)
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

Going back to last known working version etc. (F8) did not work

AFter this happened exactly the same before, XP was clean installed onto a freshly formatted NTFS partition.

Questions:
-Any way to restore the damaged file or registry parts?
-What would have caused this and how to prevent this after the next reinstallment of XP?
Twice is enough.....
-Any chance that Zonealarm or inoculate PE is involved? (allthough these were installed all the time).

Thanks in advance for your reaction.

Chris
:frown:

 

[Gepost]

I have had the exact same error, at least six times. I cannot do anything except re-load windows. This morning, I did a fresh install of XP and only put a couple of other software items on before it would not restart and gave me this error. I doesn't seem to be associated with any particular software install. I have finally learned to use Ghost and make frequent image files, but this seems to be a bug. MS site said this was an error with NT 3.51 but they could not reproduce it.

 

[MCS]

I feel your pain guys! I am having to restore my Ghost image of Windows XP on a regular basis due to this...luckily I run my system 24/7 so I dont reboot often.

I do have a clean install but haven't got round to setting it all up/testing it yet. I am not sure if it is hardware or software related.