\Windows\System\Config\System32 missing or corrupt

Hi. I've browsed around here and all over Google. Recently I restarted my computer only to notice that when I started it back up I received a message saying "\Windows\System\Config\System32 is missing or corrupt" along with going to the recovery console etc.

So my first instict was to google it to fix it. I found many fixes, many solutions. However none of them will work. Every time I try to fix this problem, I'll recieve messages such as "Access Denied". I tried renaming the system file to System.bak like some guides said, but it will not rename successfully. When "dir" is typed, I receive the message "Directory of C:\ An error occurred during directory enumeration." Whenever I try copying files, or doing MD TMP, I receive a message informing me "Access Denied"

Some guide recommended I hook up the broken comp to another working comp, but I've never taken a computer apart or put one together, so I don't want to tinker around with it especially how this isn't my computer I'm using at the moment. I don't want to have to start new and do a clean install of windows, is there any way I can fix this?

 

Also I apologize for double posting, however when I type CD Windows, it gives me a message saying "The path or file specified is not valid". I'm not sure what to do at this point, hopefully you guys can help me save this.

 

ok im not a specialist but i had missing file from sistem 32 but i have 2 hard disks each with windows and i booted from my other windows and there i replaced the file with one, i dont remember exactly, from the second windows or from first window somewhere in IE36 where the missing file had a copy.

my gues is you can atach your hard disk to another computer and to access it from there, or to buy another hard disk and install fast windows on it, then atach your old hard disk. Sry if im stupid

 

The file concerned is a registry file.

You may be able to recover by booting to the safe mode screen (boot and keep hitting F8) and choosing

'last known good configuration.'

If not follow this Microsoft article.
I'm afraid it's for Windows 2000 /2003 server so you will need to transpose the paths for XP.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/269075

 

I don't know computer internals all that well. I don't want to risk messing this computer up by accidentally unplugging something that I shouldn't have touched. Also, I don't want to have to go out and buy a new hard drive just to boot from it. I'm looking for a fix which doesn't require anything with the physical internals of the computer. But thank you for helping xromania.

As for the help you've provided studiot, I tried the last known config. thing before I even bothered with the recovery console, with no success. I was praying that might have worked, but no luck. As for the link, I'm never asked for a password, so there's no logging into anything. Everything after that I'm supposed to type into the Recovery Console, will not work.

CD System32/Config provides me with the message: "The path or file specified is not valid."
ren system system.old provides me with the message: "The rename operation failed." (I've tried approximately 30 times, hoping that one of the times it wouldn't fail. No luck.)
ren system.alt systemalt.old provides me with the same message, "The rename operation failed".
I'm having no luck with any method whatsoever from what I've seen. I've done a CHKDSK and it got to 51% then failed. A second CHKDSK was done, but at that point my friend was over checking it out. No idea what % it got to, but it failed again (He didn't reset or stop it.)

Please help =[

 

I have Windows XP Pro installed on the computer, however I never obtained the CD for it (Nor the key). My uncle has both, and I'm unable to get in touch with him. Therefore is it possible to do it with an XP Home CD? Because that's what I have (I just realized now that this may cause a problem.)

 

It appears that I need to be able to get to my desktop in order to run sfc /scannow or whatever it was. I'm unable to even get there. When attempted to do anything else I'm presented with "Access Denied". Just for the hell of it I tried the commands on my Recovery Console and obtained the message The command is not recognized Type HELP for a list of support commands. Figured that'd happen.

And the repair install, as you said, for obvious reasons, will not work. Is all hope lost?

 

I hate to be a pain but would you be able to walk me through this or provide a very detailed link on how to go about hooking up the hard drive to this computer? Will I need the XP Pro CD if I go about the method of hooking it up to this comp?

I've never messed around with the internals as it is. So I'm not quit sure how to hook up a third hard drive to this computer or how to unhook one of the current ones.

Much thanks in advance.

 

Alright, thanks. If I find a video of it on youtube, do you think that I should trust it enough to follow it? Because I know there's some idiots out there that'll just post it to have people mess up their gear.

 

If you are unsure about hooking the drive to another system, install Windows XP home as an additional operating system temporarily. You can effect the repair from there.

Do not attempt a repair install or system file checker from the XP home CD.

If you boot from the XPhome CD to setup and when asked to format the drive, say no
When asked where to install Windows install to a new folder I usually use c:\twindows.

Decline any activation offers

This will give you a second copy of XP, allbeit home, to work from.

 

Alright what I've done is this:

I start up computer, press F11 to enter boot menu. I boot from CDROM. It then says "Press Any Key To Boot From CD". I frantically search around my keyboard for the "Any Key" and then chuckle as it's a bad joke. Haha. But anyways, all jokes aside, after I press any key, it brings me to that blue screen that say "Setup is loading (Various things here)". It eventually gets to the part where it says, to set up windows, press Enter. To repair, press R, to exit, press F3. Normally I would press R to go to the recovery console. I am now pressing Enter. It brings up the EULA, I press F8, for "I agree".

Then it brings me to a screen that says:
The following list shows the existing partitions and unpartitioned space on this computer. Use the up and down arrow keys to select an item in the list.
-To set up windows XP on the selected item, press Enter.
-To create a partition in the unpartitioned space, press C
-To delete the selected partition, Press D.

Then it has a little box that says "131070 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
C: Partition1 [Unknown] 156320 MB (156319 MB Free)"

Am I to set up windows XP on the selected item? Or do I create a partition on the unpartitioned space? Do I even have enough room to install a second copy?

 

Once again I apologize for the double post.

Update: Since there was no reply I've tried several things to no avail. They include more CHKDSK's (Never complete), I tried copying the files from CD the same way you would to replace hal.dll (Access Denied), and I've looked up how to remove a hard drive and add it to another computer, but I don't trust the videos I've seen and sources I've read. They seem too shifty. My only hopes at this point seem to be to reinstall Windows or to install a second copy as previously mentioned. If anyone knows how to do the latter, it'd be greatly appreciated. But as things are now, it seems there is no cure. I'm continuing to either have access denied, file paths not being where they're supposed to be, or processes not completeing.

Thanks for the help so far guys, hopefully I won't have to resort to reinstalling from scratch.

 

Guys sorry for the triple post now. It was either I posted here or started a new topic. Although I was tempted to just start a new topic as this topic has kinda drifted, I figure I'll give this one last shot before starting a new topic. So as previously advised, I'm on the screen for WinXP Setup.

I cannot create a new partition. Pressing C does absolutely nothing (Judging by the numbers, I don't have enough room anyways.)
Now when I go to set up WinXP on the selected item, I do not have the option to "Not format". I have three options and they are:
Format the partition using the NTFS File system (Quick)
Format the partition using the NTFS File system
Press ESC to cancel.

So at this point it looks like I'm going to need to format.
Is there any way around this?

Again, sorry about the triple post. I just didn't want to have two topics going at once.

 

Boot from the XP CD to the welcome to Microsoft Windows XP screen

Under what do you want to do
click on
Install WindowsXP

Under whcih type of installation do you want
set the installation type drop down menu to New Installation (advanced)

Accept the EULA

Enter product key if required

Click the advanced options button
for the setting to this folder on my hard drive
change the name from windows to twindows or windows2 or somthing
click OK

Select language

Click no to get updated files

click next

Click enter to setup now

hit escape to avoid repairing a previous version

setup warns partition exists

c to continue

setup installs second copy

 

When I boot from CD I'm given either Setup, Go to Windows Recovery Console, or Exit.
I can't use my mouse. It looks like the BSOD.

 

What brand of XP CD do you have?

 

Microsoft? Isn't that the only "Brand" for them?

It's a home edition, however I have professional installed.

 

Big name manufacturers supply windows on 'recovery' disks. These are often abbreviated versions.

Lesser names supply also abbreviated OEM versions.

Look here for alternative proceedures.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=133777&highlight=windows2

 

I'm just trying to recover from the install disc (As that's what I used to recover from a missing hal.dll.)

I ran a CHKDSK, not sure if it completed or not. I left to bring my ex home and when I got back it was done with the following "CHKDSK found one or more errors on the volume.
160071628 kilobytes total disk space.
104892236 kilobytes are available.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
40017907 total allocation units on disk.
26223059 allocation untis available on disk.

I tried installing a second copy of windows on here, and apparently I don't have enough room (By 1 Mb)

 

You did say you had more than one drive?

Otherwise you will have to hook the drive up to another pc.

 

Unfortunately I've only 1 drive.

However, the computer I'm using right now has two.

I've never really tampered with the inners of a computer before, so I don't really want to touch either comp unless you'd be able to walk me through it or unless you'd be able to provide a video or detailed site on how to do it. =[

 

Reviewing the thread you don't seem to have run Check Disk yet.

This is a long shot but since your hard drive is overfull it may yet get you out of a hole.

Boot to the recovery console and typein

chkdsk /r

Check Disk wil run and may take some hours.

After this you system may just boot.

 

That hadn't worked. Tried multiple times.

I resorted to formatting.

Now when I did that, it wouldn't format. I mean, it would do a quick format, no problem. But it would freeze when doing a regular format. Took 3 hours and hadn't even moved from 0 to 1%. So I quick formatted it. Tried reinstalling windows. It continually told me that it couldn't copy (Various Files here). So I'd exit setup, re-enter it, and then try again. It would tell me that it had done some repairs and to restart. So I would restart, and amazingly now it would copy the file. It did this the whole process until it got to the part where it was copying files and putting them into a folder. After that, it told me that this part of the setup was complete, and that it would restart. Once the computer restarted, it was supposed to complete the rest of the setup.

So the computer resets, I'm feeling pretty good...
It starts loading...

And I get the message. "\Windows\System\Config\System32 missing or corrupt". Again. Why is this coming up? And how do I repair it now? Now when I go to recovery console it asks me which thing to log into (1) which it hadn't asked me to do before. It also doesn't say "Access Denied" when I try various things that I had before.

The only problem is, Windows wasn't completely properly installed yet, therefore not all the files are there that I need in order to fix it using the Microsoft site's method.

What should I do now?

 

After reading around I've learned that it sounds like my hard drive could be failing? I've read to get the diagonostic tools from my drives manufacturers site, and boot to those.

However I've only got 2 problems. I've never really looked inside my computer before so I'm not sure what's the hard drive. So I don't know what the manufacturer could be. I can guess that it's the single square/rectangular thing located under my CD Burners, but I don't want to mess this computer up any more than it is.

My second problem is, before I went to sleep last night (Estimating around 4 from my last post) I booted to recovery console and typed chkdsk /r. It now says:
"CHKDSK is checking the volume...
CHKDSK is performing addictional checking or recovery...
CHKDSK is performing addictional checking or recovery...
CHKDSK is performing addictional checking or recovery...
67% Complete"

Before I went to sleep it was hanging at 50%. So within the last 7 hours, it's only went up 17 percent. I've no clue if it's possibly frozen. Do I let it run? Or do I just try and find out my manufacturer, reset in the middle of CHKDSK, and use their disc?

 

It certainly sounds like your HD is beginning to fail. Between this and your other thread I doubt you have any data of any use left on the HD. I would boot from the XP installation CD, choose to install and delete the existing partition. Then create a new partition and try the full format (your only option on a new partition). Then attempt to install.

 

Alright, so this is what I've done. Correct me if I'm screwing up anywhere.

Press power button. Quickly insert Win XP CD. Hold down F11 to bring up boot menu. Boot from CD.

This brings me to black screen with a bunch of stuff I don't understand on it, and at the bottom it says "Press Any Key To Boot From CD."
I press any key.

Brings me to a blue screen with a bunch of stuff at the bottom. Eventually brings me to a blue screen that says Welcome to Windows Setup or some crap. To install windows on the selected partition press Enter. To delete the selected partition press D. To create a new partition on the unpartitioned space, press C.

I press D.
I go through the process and delete my partition.
I then press C.
I create a new partition.
I then press enter on this newly created partition. It gives me the option to format to NTFS (Quick) or NTFS.
I go to just NTFS (No quick).

If I've done everything right, I've attempted this before and it took over an hour and hadn't moved up to 1%.

I'm currently looking at a screen that says:

"Windows XP Home Edition Setup

Please wait while Setup formats the partition
C: Partition1 [New (Raw)] 131062 MB (131061 MB free)
on 131070 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
Setup is formatting...
0%

And this is where it sits. I've seen no progress in any attempt to do this so far.
How long should I expect before it goes up 1%?

 

10-15 minutes tops for a full format. So less than a minute for 3-4 %.

 

10-15 minutes and not even 1%. Full format will not start. I've also made that floppy that you linked me to. Ran it. Worked better than previous. Except now I'm getting a message "Copying Files to RAM Drive C...
Error reading from drive A: DOS area: data error (bad CRC)
(A)bort (I)gnore (R)etry (F)ail?

I keep hitting R. No success any time.

 

Do you have another blank floppy to write the SeaTools to?

 

I've got a ton of floppies.

Right now I've got 5 infront of me and many more in another room.

 

The CRC error is a problem reading the floppy. Try writing the Seatools to a brand new floppy.

I'm fairly convinced the HD is just too far gone. It looks like you've got no where for any startup disk to write temporary files. But if you can get SeaTools to work it can confirm this.

 

Another floppy, worked. But now when I went to do the long test I was provided with a message saying:

An over temperature condition was detected prior to the test starting. The drive is , or had been at or above 70 degrees C. Do you want to continue the test?

I honestly do not believe that the temperature was ever at that point seeing as I've got a back cooling fan, and two other fans on my case that both work, and then the fan on my motherboard or whatever it is.

Should I still run the test?

 

Sure, give it a try. I've never seen the temperature warning--not sure what it means.

 

Ran that disc. It worked this time. I ran the test anyways.

Came up with a TON of errors. Gave me the option to repair them and whatnot. It said it repaired them. I then ran the long test again (Because for some reason it stopped?) and I'm currently at 67 errors and counting. I'm of course going to repair them again, but if I continue to repair these, will it eventually fix?



It gets to 100 errors then asks to repair. I don't pass 0%

 

The drive is probably just too far gone. If you just keep getting errors then I think the only option is to do a Zero fill and see what you end up with as far as capacity. During a zero fill all bad sectors will be marked bad and off limits for further writing.

I, personally, wouldn't waste a whole lot of time on this drive as it will be unreliable. Give the zero fill a shot and then try an install but that is about it. HDs are mechanical and once they stop working they don't suddenly start working properly again.