Windows 2000 couldn't start. SYSTEM missing or corrupt

**mingpan** · May 31st, 2007, 10:03 PM

I have a Compaq Evo N200, which is an ultracompact notebook and has neither a floppy disk drive nor a CD one. Last week after a Windows update I rebooted my laptop and got this error message: "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEMced".

Having no CD drive I couldn't run the Compaq Quick Restore CDs that came with my laptop. I borrowed an external floppy drive from a friend and downloaded Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks from the internet. I attached the external floppy drive to my laptop. Luckily the laptop booted from the external drive and loaded the Setup disks. I got to the Recovery Console and rename system and system.alt files as directed by Microsoft (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/269075), but when I went to the c:\winnt\repair folder, I couldn't find a system file there and there's not a regback subfolder either as I had never run the Emergency Repair Disk Wizard (I'm really angry with myself for this).

There was, however, a system.bak file in the repair folder. I decided to give it a try and copied it to the c:\winnt\system32\config folder and renamed it as system.

Then I rebooted my laptop. This time I didn't see the error message but it started the Windows 2000 Setup process and asked me for the Windows 2000 Product Key! When I bought this laptop there was no Windows 2000 CD coming with it. There are two Compaq Quick Restore CDs, but there is no Product Key on them. I searched for one on internet and found this website http://mywebpage.netscape.com/opensrcrules/cdkey.html. However, none of the Windows 2000 Product Keys listed there worked. I always got an error message saying the product Key was invalid.

What can I do now? Is there a way for me to find my own Windows 2000 Product Key in the c:\winnt folder? Or, maybe Microsoft has invalidates the product keys listed on the above website and I can try some other Windows 2000 product keys? Or, maybe I'm getting desperate but maybe I can create a floppy version of the Compaq Quick Restore CDs? Please help!

Thank you!