Danno
16-02-2006, 01:03 PM
If you receive the following message when booting to XP here is a few things that you can try to fix the problem without having to wipe your hard drive.
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\windows\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
These fixes can also be used to try and fix many other boot issues with windows XP without having to reinstall.
***Please note the below steps can only be done with an original windows XP CD, this will not work with a recovery disk. If you boot to the recovery disk you will lose all information from your hard drive if you try this. The below steps should not cause data loss but due to the nature of the problem it is not guaranteed that all the data on the hard drive will be 100% safe. Hopefully if the data is that important it has already been backed up so if some is lost you would be able to restore it from your backup disks***
All of the below needs to be ran from the Windows XP Recovery Console. To get to the recovery console use your Windows CD-ROM to start your computer. At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press press 'R" to enter the recovery console.
More information on the recovery console can be found here.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -US;314058 (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314058)
When in the recovery console try the following. After each step type EXIT to reboot the PC, when the PC is booting let it try to boot to the hard drive.
CHKDSK /R The chkdsk command checks the specified drive and repairs or recovers the drive if the drive requires it. The command also marks any bad sectors and it recovers readable information.
FIXBOOT C: Use this command to write the new Windows boot sector code on the system partition.
BOOTCFG /REBUILD Use this command for boot configuration and recovery. /rebuild : Iterates through all Windows installations so that you can specify which installations to add.
If none of the above works you can try a repair install of windows.
Windows XP Home Repair Install
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxpho ... llpage.htm (http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxphome/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm)
Windows XP Pro Repair Install
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxppr ... llpage.htm (http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxppro/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm)
Windows XP Pro 64bit Repair Install
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxppr ... llpage.htm (http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxpprox64/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm)
If the repair install does not work the only option would be to wipe the hard drive and start again from scratch.
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\windows\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
These fixes can also be used to try and fix many other boot issues with windows XP without having to reinstall.
***Please note the below steps can only be done with an original windows XP CD, this will not work with a recovery disk. If you boot to the recovery disk you will lose all information from your hard drive if you try this. The below steps should not cause data loss but due to the nature of the problem it is not guaranteed that all the data on the hard drive will be 100% safe. Hopefully if the data is that important it has already been backed up so if some is lost you would be able to restore it from your backup disks***
All of the below needs to be ran from the Windows XP Recovery Console. To get to the recovery console use your Windows CD-ROM to start your computer. At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press press 'R" to enter the recovery console.
More information on the recovery console can be found here.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -US;314058 (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314058)
When in the recovery console try the following. After each step type EXIT to reboot the PC, when the PC is booting let it try to boot to the hard drive.
CHKDSK /R The chkdsk command checks the specified drive and repairs or recovers the drive if the drive requires it. The command also marks any bad sectors and it recovers readable information.
FIXBOOT C: Use this command to write the new Windows boot sector code on the system partition.
BOOTCFG /REBUILD Use this command for boot configuration and recovery. /rebuild : Iterates through all Windows installations so that you can specify which installations to add.
If none of the above works you can try a repair install of windows.
Windows XP Home Repair Install
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxpho ... llpage.htm (http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxphome/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm)
Windows XP Pro Repair Install
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxppr ... llpage.htm (http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxppro/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm)
Windows XP Pro 64bit Repair Install
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxppr ... llpage.htm (http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxpprox64/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm)
If the repair install does not work the only option would be to wipe the hard drive and start again from scratch.