Dreaded Blue Screen, Vista, load key failed with error 1017 (STHIVE#0)

Ok,
I have the Blue Screen, and this message
[load key failed with error 1017 (STHIVE#0)]

It runs the start up repair but doesnt fix it,
It looks like he ran an Update just before this happened. Vista.

Problem Event Name: StartupRepairV2
Problem Signature 01: AuoFailover
Problem Signature 02: 6.0.6000.16386.6.0.6001.18000
Problem Signature 03: 3
Problem Signature 04: 262147
Problem Signature 05: Corrupt Registry
Problem Signature 06: NoBootFailure
Problem Signature 07: 0
Problem Signature 08: 0
Problem Signature 09: unknown
Problem Signature 10: 1168
OS Version 6.0.600.2.0.0.256.2
Local ID: 1033

Any Ideas?? I can fix if it was XP but I haven had much experience with Vista

 

Pleae note it has gotten worse, I now only have the Err1Err3 on the black screen.

I feat the HDD has stuffed itself

 

Well for starters check you drive, load a Vista disk in the Drive and boot from it ... get to Command Prompt and type chkdsk /r
take note of your Bad Sectors
after this is done type bootrec /fixmbr
then bootrec /fixboot
then bootrec /rebuildbcd

Although if you have too many Bad Sectors the last three commands wont do you any good ...

Let us know

 

Thanks for that, part of the problem was having the computer and no Vista disk, due to the disk being home and the computer her. Plus Vista does not seem to have a generic boot disk, to ease all these problems.
After all that the Hard Drive was not reading, I checked and it is seated correctly but just not reading. I have read since that Vista and this model have the issue easily fixed by your advise.
Thanks

 

NP bud ... :major