P.C. will not boot

Hi guys,

I'm trying to fix a friends PC without losing any data. When trying to boot it shows the error message: Missing or corrupt file- windows\system32\config\system. He can't find his HP oem Windows XP Home c.d. and my copy is a retail XP Pro c.d. Booting with my c.d. didnt work when trying to run a repair so is there any other way to fix this? With a floppy maybe?

Thanks

 

My PC is an HP and a Windows cd does not come with the computer. Instead HP uses a recovery partition, usually D. Doing what you are trying to do without loosing any data is going to be rather tough if not impossible. If you contact HP and explain your situation, they will send you recovery cd's that you can boot from. Boot floppies can be made but they (6 floppies) have to be burned from the machine the floppies will be used on and in your case if you can't boot, you won't be able to burn the floppies.

If you can find someone who does have the Windows cd that is the same as the computer you are trying to boot (sp1/sp2) you should be able to get to the recovery console and try repair.

I once had to use my daughter's Windows XP cd to correct the same problem you are having. Luckily, her cd was the exact same as my HP Windows XP OEM.

Wish I could be of more help. Maybe someone in this forum who has more knowledge than I do (probably 99.9% of the folks in this forum do) on this problem will give you better insight.

 

I have an old computer that is HP and unfortunately I wiped most of the Garbage that HP installs, but if my memory is correct there is a repair install in the recovery partition, that I used once, to repair something similar to what your doing. Just have a look around in the Recovery Section and I think you will find a heading similar to this Repair Damaged or Lost files Only. hope that helps

 

Thanks guys,

I don't yhink there is a way to get into that recovery partition. Is it possible to put that file (config\system) on a floppy and adding it somehow? I can only get to the bios.

 

At what point do you get the booting error?

I've had some various booting problems that I was able to resolve in different ways. One problem was that the booting sequence would go part way through the boot-up scan (the bar across the bottom) and then stop. Then after awhile it would tell me it couldn't find the operating system. To repair that one, I opened up my computer, unplugged the harddrive, blew the dust out and plugged it back in. That worked.

Then I had the booting problem where it made it to the blue screen with a big error message. To fix that one, I followed a suggestion by TimW to plug the broken harddrive into a working XP computer and do a bootup of the working one with the non-bootable one second one plugged into the cd cable. That forced a chkdsk and fixed it.

I don't know if this would work for you, but TimW might know.
abri

 

It only boots up to the HP background and then the error comes that the file is missing. It is at home right now so I can't give better details until this afternoon.

 

Thank you very much for those links Tim. I will try the iso when I get home and post back the results.

 

Here it is ... the old oem problem again ...

"Warning Do not use the procedure that is described in this article if your computer has an OEM-installed operating system." ​

abri

 

TimW,
hmmm, the problem here isn't that the recovery console isn't offered by microsoft, but rather, that the manufacturer of my computer made it unavailable on the recovery cd. also, there's a good point in that article, about an old cd not being new enough to cover sp2. I will have to work on this.
abri

 

Do we like a datei opened from the website address and written by someone named Igor Pavlov?
<quaking>
what's a torrent?
abri

 

I don't know where you left off on this, but try check to see if the computer company has a live chat or customer service you can call to talk you through. I don't know how different it is than the old OS, but can you run "sysedit" or "scandisk"? When something goes wrong, and they are no longer covered by warranty, you can get really stuck. Can you tell it you want it to boot on another drive?


Willie

 

I thought I'd report back and I appreciate all the help. This is very weird, I brought his box home and hooked it up and it booted on the first try like nothing was ever wrong. What's strange is his laptop and x-box 360 are all messed up too. I wonder if some voltage spike..etc. hit him. I only live a mile away though.

Thanks again guys, I always learn so much here.