Windows XP Pro issues

Hi ya,

Please help me with windows XP, please find some information given below:

1. Problem with Virus sujin.com.
2. Removed virus.
3. Removed Key USERINIT.
4. Unable to log in !!
5. Searched google.
6. came to this site.
7. Visited, http://www-biology.ucsd.edu/computerservices/registryfix.html from the post here http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=958851.

8. Performed these steps from the biology website:

To complete part one, follow these steps:
Boot to the Recovery Console.
At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following lines, pressing ENTER after you type each line:
md tmp
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak

delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\default

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

Type exit to quit Recovery Console. Your computer will restart.

9. After I did the above when I try to boot i get the message" windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\windows\system32\config\system

you can attempt to repair this file...

10. I have the XP Pro cd, the cd drive letter is d: and windows is installed on C:\windows.

Thank you. looking forward to help as soon as possible.

 

Hello Ciao, welcome to Major Geeks, and well done for strating your own thread not adding onto an old one.

The date in the UCSD page is Oct 2002 and the note halfway down says

I presume you have NTFS?

Can you slave your drive to another pc?

Are you sure that all the steps you have reported yielded a success and are complete? It's easy to miss one.

Try again with the recovery console and let us know how you get on. Check that the files have actually been deleted and then replaced.

For rules on the console see post #23 on this thread.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=152455&highlight=recovery+console

 

Hi Studiot !!

Thanks you for the welcome. I did read some where on being told to start a individual thread for better visibility etc.. so I did

I did not notice the date of the article !! and that its for fat32, yeah I have NTFS formatting on the drive,

The issue that I have stated is with a laptop and I do have another laptop, but I dont know how to slave it and what cables are required etc..

I did complete all the steps successfully but could not complete the following from my previous post:

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

I got the message that the files were not found!

So I guess I deleted them?

Will try those steps again and thanks again for the link, please do let me know what else can I do?

Appreciate your help !

 

Hi Again Studio T,

I could not complete the steps that I have posted earlier.

Please help me with the current issue now, "windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:

\windows\system\config\system "

after this is slved we can get back to the userinit deletion part..

please urgent help required.

Thanks

 

Hi Hi again lol,

I am getting sort of paranoid because the laptop that is not working is a friends...and I am the one who messed it up..:cry

anyways coming to the point, I tried the same steps given in my post #1 and I found the same steps on microsofts website also:

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

So I tried this again.

In the recover console:

1. Typed md temp

it said a directory or file with the name temp already exists..

2. copy c:\windows\system\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak

got the message "the system cannot find the file specified"

now how do I proceed studio T? :confused

PS: I cannot reinstall it because she has most of her pics (no backup) in the system folder on c: and they will also get reformatted..

 

So you would appear to have deleted, but not replaced the file(s).

This is what I meant by check what you have actually accomplished.

In the recovery console, successively issue the cd command to get from c:\windows to
c:\windows\ssytem32\config

cd system32
cd config

issue the dir command

The screen shot shows a the recovery console from a pc with XPsp2.

You can see from the list if you have a system file (never mind the squiggles on the left.

Sorry about the poor quality pic.
when in c:\windows\ssytem32\config

 

Hi Studio T,

Thanks again for the reply and guess what my laptop crashed lol, so could not log in as this was getting 2 much with two laptops not working anyways I got another laptop from a friend (kind hehe) and read your post and copied the files back to the system folder and now I have progressed back to the original issue of unable to log in to windows ( as I had deleted the userinit from the registry)

so I did a search and got a solution to copy the file from the windows XP, doing it now and keeping fingers crossed.

Thanks again for your support and help..

hope to post again in few minutes with some good news hehe

 

Hi Again,

Now I can boot however cannot log in to windows as I had earlier delted the userinit key from the registry.

I did a search and found that I would have to replace the file userinit.exe from the windows XP CD using the recovery console.

I did that and the issue persists, still cannot login !! I enter a paswword and then hit return and screen goes black as if trying to load the desktop ..but it does not and I am back to square one..

Studio T I will be online, please post a reply asap..

Thanks,
ciaoxp

 

Problem resolved thanks studiot for the support and help.

I just copied the files from c:\windows\repair to c:\windows\system\config and all is well

the data is intact under c:\documents and setting\TPUSER.. will back it up and then do a fresh install..whew..

 

Can you not simply do a repair install? from you XP CD?

I'm not sure what your resources are, but if you can slave the hard drive to another pc you can load the registry for your failed system on the other pc into regedit32 and restore the missing key. You can only use regedit32 to load another registry than the one you are using, regedit will not do it.

A further alternative would be to install a second copy of windows into you hard drive, if you have enough space. Do not allow setup to format the drive and choose another folder e.g.twindows to install to. Once again you can use regedit32 to edit the old registry.

The repair install is easily the quickest, and should only take about 45 minutes.

 

Glad it's all sorted.
Selective repairs are really scary.

Here's a tip for next time you have a problem.

In general don't delete stuff - files or registry keys.

Rename them or rename their extensions.
Registry keys can be give a different value. Note the original.

Then if you need them back you can reverse the process.

If after a few months all is still well, then you can delete.

:major:major

 

Thanks for the tips