windows xp file missing?

Da Mail Man

Da Mail Man

Active Member
Greetings all,

......a friend called me and said her computer
(a dell desktop 3.0ghz, 1gb ram, 250gb(?) hd, win xp pro), had some boot-up issues. I am out of town right now and can't help her unti the week end.

......she stated that; "windows cannot find this file". file is missing or corrupt (windows/system32/config/system)".

......i attempted to get her into safe mode with no apparent luck. i attempted to get her into "last known good configuration (or similar) again, with no apparent luck.

...assuming this file is "trash" in one way or another, HOW can i get the system restored without overwriting or destroying and saved e-mails, settings, files, etc..


...i believe and if i can recall, if i do this with an installation disc, it will ask me about doing a repair(??), or what?....THANKS AGAIN!
 
Download the hard drive manufacturer diagnostic utility and test the hard drive. If the drive passes, stick the Windows disc in and use the recovery console to run a chkdsk.
 
.....just thought i would get back to this with an update...i threw not only the kitchen sink at this but the entire damned kitchen!...after 9 hrs of tooling around with this, i said "$crew-it" and reformatted the computer...:(

.....i used ultimate boot disc, ERD, and a few other tools including the win xp disc and no luck!....all diagnostics said the hd was fine...every time i would enter into the recovery console of xp (booting into teh disc) i would select "R" and waited for 1/2 hr and not a damned thing would happen:mad::mad:......oh well....i still could not do anything involving the missing file....maybe i gotta find some more "specialty" tools.......THANKS FOR ALL THE REPLIES THOUGH!
 
Here is something to try.
...what part didn't you get?...I ALREADY FORMATTED THE COMPUTER

Get into system restore and try to restore the system to an earlier date (before the problem started).
....it is apparent you didn't read or yet understand what i wrote!..I CANNOT GET INTO SYSTEM RESTORE! That is the 1st thing i attempted!

It may not work if the restore points are gone but you can try. Since you can get into the safe mode etc. screen, try to get into the "Safe Mode With Command Prompt". Once you are in there follow these instructions.
[B....]don't you think i know this?..i tried this and none of this worked. PLEASE rad what i wrote before you respond ![/B]

How to Start System Restore from the Command Line
Sometimes when you install a program or driver, it might render XP unbootable. If your computer won't boot into the operating system normally, you might be able to boot into Safe Mode and use System Restore to go back to a previous restore point to fix the problem. But what if you can't even boot into safe mode? Then you need to start the System Restore tool from the command line. Here's how:
....This is a cut and paste from somewhene as i have seen this a long time ago from som someplace.

1 When booting your computer, press F8 to bring up a boot menu
2 Select Safe Mode with Command Prompt
3 Select the operating system to start (if you have multiple operating systems installed)
4 Log on with an account that is a member of the administrators group
5 At the command prompt, type c:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe
6 Press Enter
7 This will start the "Welcome to System Restore" screen. Go through the steps of the Wizard and follow the instructions to restore your system to a previous restore point
....DUH, i know this already. instead of wasting your time and taking up bandwidth space, read what the op wrote instead of blindly typing. thanks any waay.
 
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