Missing windowsysystem32/config/system tried reboot.

[Berlylabs]

Hi,
I'm a new member, yay me. I'm a computer science major, only sophmore year so I'm still learning. Anyway my sister has a custom built computer that had windows xp on it. This morning she encountered a problem when she went to boot and it said that /windows/system32/config/system was missing and it wouldn't boot. She talked to me and I talked to a friend of mine and looked around online. I tried to do the repair install. We have an XP Cd here. I was able to boot from the cd successfully but upon asking it to do the install it tried to find a current installation. It said it couldn't so it needed to verify it was ok to do the install. Well it says the cd couldn't be read or it wasn't an xp cd, though it was. So I went through all our cds and found a dell cd. Upon trying with that I realized there was no repair function, this being the cd that came with my Dell, the computer I am on as we speak. I was shocked it even worked at first. So upon doing that I figured I could just do a reformat and after explaining to my sister that she'd lose everything she didn't care and said go for it cause it not booting wasn't helping. So I started the reformat all was going good, deleted all partions then asked it to install xp. It formatted the partition, ntfs quick, it copied files, all was going good. Then it went to reboot. I didn't touch any keys and then I got the error again, that /windows/system32/config/system was missing and it wouldn't boot. So this is where I'm at. I've redone all this several times and can't get anything. Her computer now has no OS on it and can't reboot to finish the install. Someone help me. Catch me on Instant messengers too, aim:Berlylabs Yahoo: Blacklablove@yahoo.com and msn: blacklablove@msn.com. Looking for any ideas, I love to learn how to solve things as I will have a career in something like this later but I can't wait til I learn it in school. Thanks!
Berlylabs

[MrSuave]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3075...22120121120120

from another thread on this site:

Quote:

Originally Posted by NightRise420

Yes. Boot with the Window XP disk by going into bios and switching booting sequence. Set the CD-ROM to first priority. Then when u boot in, press R for Repair. You are required to type in the administrator password. If u dont have one, just press enter. At the console prompt type the following commands in order.

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

and Restart.

good luck.

[Berlylabs]

Ok, I tried this after the many unsuccessful tries and tried it with both my dell cd and the xp cd I had and had no success. First I both copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak and
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak said that the file wasn't found, so therefore the delete didn't work on that either. But I kept going and when I tried to do the last part with the windows/repair, I got messages that none of them could be found. Any ideas?

[Iturea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berlylabs

Ok, I tried this after the many unsuccessful tries and tried it with both my dell cd and the xp cd I had and had no success. First I both copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak and
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak said that the file wasn't found, so therefore the delete didn't work on that either. But I kept going and when I tried to do the last part with the windows/repair, I got messages that none of them could be found. Any ideas?

At recovery console look at your directories to see if they even exist.

cd windows\repair

dir /w

Is there a repair folder? If so, is there any files in there?

Also

cd windows\system32\config\

does it exist? Any files?

Your not going to be able to copy files that don't exist.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also - are you dealing with an upgrade XP cd or the full version? OEM or retail? All these things will effect your installation...

Also I wouldn't recommend doing a "ntfs quick" format considering there may be hard drive problems. You need to check all the free space for errors and ntfs quick does not do that. Also you take a risk at using a DELL CD on a non DELL PC. You may notice it will not activate after the install. The whole "OEM" / "Retail" Windows Genuine Advantage deal.

At this point you might as well just type chkdsk /r in recover console and check the disk for errors instead of doing a full format.

[Berlylabs]

Both of those directories exist but when I do dir /w it says no files are in them.

As far as the cd's go, I have one that is a windows xp home edition cd, just noticed now that it says upgrade. The other cd I have is a cd for my computerr, a dell, that is the cd's you get when you buy your computer that says what is already on there, it's a dell one for the operating system of windows xp.

Let me know if anyone has any more ideas.

Thanks for all the help thus far too.

Kim

[Iturea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berlylabs

Both of those directories exist but when I do dir /w it says no files are in them.

As far as the cd's go, I have one that is a windows xp home edition cd, just noticed now that it says upgrade. The other cd I have is a cd for my computerr, a dell, that is the cd's you get when you buy your computer that says what is already on there, it's a dell one for the operating system of windows xp.

Let me know if anyone has any more ideas.

Thanks for all the help thus far too.

Kim

You didn't mention whether or not you did a chkdsk /r in recover console. We have to know whether your disk is corrupt before we can suggest other methods for you to try.

[Berlylabs]

sorry I did do a chkdsk and it said it fixed one or more errors. Should I retry the installation and maybe have it do just ntfs and not ntfs quick.

[Iturea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berlylabs

sorry I did do a chkdsk and it said it fixed one or more errors. Should I retry the installation and maybe have it do just ntfs and not ntfs quick.

Thats what i would do...

[uninstall.exe]

What i would suggest if you don't have any files or anything that is valuable to you is just to reinstall windows, it may seem drastic but if you don't have the need to save anything it is prolly the best route to go. Use it as a last resort after this

[Berlylabs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uninstall.exe

What i would suggest if you don't have any files or anything that is valuable to you is just to reinstall windows, it may seem drastic but if you don't have the need to save anything it is prolly the best route to go. Use it as a last resort after this

uninstal.exe,

This is what I'm trying to do and where I encountered the problem. I can't find a regular xp disk but I have one for a dell. Upon trying to reinstall I still get the error. Will try the regular ntfs and see how that does. If anyone else has suggestions please let me know as sister has no computer for now, and I'm interested in figuring this out.

Thanks for everyone's help thus far