Win 2000pro endless reboot: cannot load hive

Dear Geeks--

My HP Vectra VL 400 won't finish one boot cycle before flashing a BSOD and immediately rebooting, in an endless loop.

The process is accompanied by an ominous noise from the HD: Swip, swip, swip, swip, tweeee/click. Swip, swip, swip, swip, tweeee/click. (Repeat ad nauseam.)

The BSOD gives the "registry cannot load hive" error message. I do not have the rescue CDs that came with the machine.

My question: Is there some way to repair the hive by booting from a CD or floppy? If so, any links to downloadable freeware for such a fix?

Thanks for any advice!

 

I'd recommend you start shopping for a new HardDrive, it sounds like the current one is on its way out...

 

I figured the HD might be dying--thanks for confirming my suspicion.

Still, is there any way to get the system going long enough to recover data files from the HD?

 

What is the Operating System? Have you tried the Safe Mode?

 

The OS is Windows 2000 Pro, meaning NT--if that helps. The system will not start in Safe Mode; I've tried all the different startup options with no success.

I've just downloaded the Ultimate Rescue Disk from this site, and will burn it to CD. I might then give it a go in the Vectra to see if it'll repair the registry. Do you think this has a chance of working, or should I try something else?

 

From your initial post, it is a bad drive, not yet crashed but the plates are clinching and about to crash with a loud bang possibly, how long would it last who knows?
Since your problem is Hardware based, no utility you are going to use could guarantee 100% recovery of data, the reason I am saying that is even before when the system was bootable, due to bad sactors formed on the drive even if everything looked ok on the surface the data being saved might have been corrupted and ev en if you access and salvage the data, it might not be any good. Of course these are kind of worse0case scenario, worst case scenario would be that one loud bang! and your drive becomes an expensive a book holder or a door stopper...lol.
At this point you could try using a software that is 100% operating system (windows) independent, cause your system boot files are corrupted or inaccessible (they were located on the sectors that are no longer readeable, etc.) Try readntfs this bootable free program would let you save files from any NTFS drive to a FAT partition (assuming the HardDisk didn't have any FAT partition, then you have to use a Floppy disk )

Either case then feel bad if the drive crashes in the middle of the rescue process....and like I said even rescued data could be corrupted (unreadeable) on the new Drive.

When you are done with all the backup process, you could try this really unorthodox method to see if it helps (don't laugh cause as odd as it sounds it works once in a while):
Make sure the PC is not on a carpet, preferably a hard floor, turn the PC off and unplug its power cord from PSU, then lift the front of the case (where the HD is) about 2-3 inches, then drop it....wait a few mins then plug it back up and turn it on...

Good Luck!