Blue screen of death!

Hello,
My laptop got a blue screen of death after I changed out the battery for a new one(It wouldn't hold a charge anymore). The message was "stop c0000218. Windows could not load the hive(registry). windows\system32\config\software. The file may be missing or corrupt." That may not be exactly what it said but you get the gist I hope(The stop code is exact). I suspect I may have to do a full reinstall but was looking online to see if I could repair it. I tried the windows recommended repair, entering the recovery console and copying and deleting the system, software, sam, default and security files. It would not copy the software file. I also saw that you can possibly recover through the set-up menu without reformatting. When it asks me to choose a partition I have 3 choices. When I select the NTSC partition, it does't give me the option to repair which a couple of websites said it would(http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/instxprepair1_6.htm, http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897). There isn't anything too important that reformatting isn't an option, I am just trying to save time by not having to reinstall every driver. Do you have any advice? Is there any way to do this without a full reformat?

 

This is what you followed? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545
There are 4 sections of procedures and it can be a lengthy process if you have not done this before... but it kind of sounds like you've done most of it.

You may have to copy the software registry file from a different "snapshot" (restore point) folder.

 

That is what i was trying to follow. The software file can't be copied, how do I do it form a different restore point?

 

Can you view the System Volume Info folder?

Open one of these folders to locate a Snapshot subfolder. The following path is an example of a folder path to the Snapshot folder:
C:\System Volume Information\_restore{D86480E3-73EF-47BC-A0EB-A81BE6EE3ED8}\RP1\Snapshot

 

Oh, also.. have you done a CHKDSK /F?

 

I actually had not run a chkdsk but I did yesterday and it fixed it. I never thought it would work b/c every forum i looked at similar to that stop code said it didn't help. thanks.