I like this trick. Every time I do it, I think about all those people doing repair installs (in-place upgrades).
It works pretty much every time unless the filesystem is really truly screwed, in which case you need a backup, say from the system restore directory (System Volume Information), as per this knowledgebase article (don’t bother with the recovery console though, use your USB to IDE or USB to SATA cable and fix it from your laptop.)
Here are the symptoms. You try to start up your Windows 2000/XP (Vista too?) computer and you get a message, white text on black background:
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
or
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE
Sometimes, the message is cut short, so you might see “\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYS” or similar. Hint: If it’s really cut short, and you can’t see if it’s SOFTWARE or SYSTEM, do the following procedure on both files. Whichever one is identified as having been repaired, well that’s the one that was broken 
Anyway, how to fix it in 2 minutes:
Use your USB to IDE/SATA adapter cable, and connect the broken machine’s hard drive to your laptop, or your spare PC or whatever. You don’t have to use a USB to IDE/SATA adapter cable - if you’re a person at home with another PC you can stick the drive on a spare IDE or SATA channel. You just need to get that hard drive into a working Windows XP computer for a few minutes.
Windows will mount the broken computer’s hard drive as, say E: or F:. Make sure you have your computer set to show hidden files and also system files. To check this, go into My Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options, -> View Tab, and select “Show hidden files”, and make sure “Hide protected operating system files” is not ticked.
First things first, run chkdsk on that drive, after all it is most likely filesystem corruption that has caused the registry to become corrupt in the first place. In My Computer, right-click the broken computer’s drive and choose properties. Go to tools, “Check Now”, put a tick in only the first box (Automatically fix filesystem errors), and click start. Let that finish before continuing.
Here’s where the magic happens. Go to start -> run, and type regedit [enter]. This will launch the registry editor on your computer. In the registry editor, highlight HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, and then go to File -> Load Hive. Find the file that is “missing or corrupt” (from your error message earlier), and choose to load that. It will be in E:\(or F:\)Windows\System32\Config, and will be called just SOFTWARE or SYSTEM. Regedit will ask you to name the hive, just type “badpc” (any old garbage will do - it’s only temporary).
Regedit will say “One or more files containing the registry were corrupt and had to be recovered by use of log files. The recovery was successful.” You have just repaired the registry! Now you need to Un-load that hive, so highlight that “badpc” hive that you can now see under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, and go to File -> Unload Hive.
You now just need to put that hard drive back in the broken computer, which hopefully won’t be broken any more! If you used a USB to SATA or USB to IDE cable from your laptop, make sure you use the “Safely remove hardware” icon in the system tray next to the clock to safely remove the hard drive, else you may cause filesystem corruption again. Alternatively just shut your laptop/working computer down properly and remove the hard drive once it’s shut down.
All done.
Some background:
The registry is a database. It has transaction log files which can be used to recover from corruption. It would appear that the early Windows boot process is not able to work with those log files, but regedit (and Windows itself further on in the boot process) is.
Thanks for a super solution to this problem. This saved me a reload - which I need to do anyway - but another day!
Why could’nt MS put a command line utility on the XP repair CD to do this? Sigh.
Thanks a ton!!
You’re welcome Dwain. There are a lot of interesting things that can be done by loading system & user registry hives into regedit, for example user profile migration (i.e. when joining or re-creating a domain), migrating software settings (e.g. load the old software hive or user’s ntuser.dat, export relevant parts, search/replace HKLM\OLDPC -> HKCU\SOFTWARE in the export file, then re-import) etc. I think a lot of people don’t realise these things.
I’m glad this was useful to you anyway - that’s why I decided to create the blog
cheers,
Carl
worked for me too. thank you!! found your mention on softwaretipsandtricks.com
“Regedit will say “One or more files containing the registry were corrupt and had to be recovered by use of log files.”
My error was “/windows/system32/config/SYSTEM”
I tried this on both files and both times i created the ‘badpc’ registry entry but i did not get the above message: “One or more files containing the registry were corrupt and had to be recovered by use of log files.”
I tried booting the old drive and it still shows this file in error.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Rich
Hmmm. I would try a new IDE or SATA cable in the broken computer, disconnect any USB storage devices (external HDDs, USB flash things etc), also make sure you’re loading “system” and not “system.sav” or something (you may have file extensions hidden and not realise). Under My Computer, go Tools -> Folder Options -> View -> untick “Hide file extensions for known types” and have another go at loading \windows\system32\config\system into regedit.
Failing that, you’ll have to restore from backup: backup (rename) the broken SYSTEM hive to system.backup just so you can come back to it later if you want, and grab _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM from \System Volume Information\_restore-whatever\rp-something (pick an rp folder with a recent date), then rename that _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM to just SYSTEM and stick it in \windows\system32\config.
See what happens then. You’ll have to fix the permissions on System Volume Information (right-click, properties -> security -> Add “everyone” -> Full Control) so that you can get into there.
Bryce Whitty has an article describing a tool on a bootable CD which will do the above for you automatically, see here: http://www.technibble.com/how-to-fix-windows-registry-hive/
Hi,
I am getting following error while trying to choose perticular missing file..
“The request could not be performed due to I/O device error”
Any idea??
Hi Vivek. It sounds like your hard disk has unreadable sectors and is potentially on its way to failing completely. If you put the disk to your ear whilst it is trying to load the file, you may hear some repetitive clicking, if so then your hard disk is definitely buggered.
I would get your data off there ASAP. Perhaps use a disk cloning tool like Ghost or Acronis TrueImage and clone as much as possible over to a good disk. This may take a long time because Ghost or TrueImage will continually try to read the bad sectors, only moving on to the next (also potentially unreadable) sector after many tries. I cloned a bad disk with Ghost yesterday and it took all night, but the result, after a repair install of Windows, was just fine. There are tools such as Prosoft Media Tools Pro which allow you to set timeout and retry numbers, but they clone the entire disk sector by sector unlike Ghost which only transfers actual data.
I have encountered failing hard disks where only the registry hives were unreadable, as in your case. I cloned the drive to a good disk, and replaced the SYSTEM registry hive with a backup from System Volume Information (as per my comments to Rich, above).
You may see “disk” related errors in the system event log, depending on how your USB to IDE adaptor works. It may be possible for you to view the System event log of the broken computer, and see if there are any red “disk” errors in the log file from before the computer stopped booting. This again will confirm a failing disk. To do this you would go to Start -> Run and type “eventvwr” [enter] on your working computer. When the event viewer opens up, right-click “Event Viewer (local)” and choose “Open Log file”. Then open up the file \WINDOWS\system32\config\SysEvent.Evt off the bad disk and have a look. I would generally just listen to the disk though. I use a stethoscope for this purpose. Customers love it when I turn up to fix a computer and pull out my stethoscope
They think I’m winding them up 
thanks dude!!
will try what you said and let you know if I have any questions.
Vivek
Good luck! I’d be pleased to hear how you get on.
cheers,
Carl
Carl; I have the registry problem on 1 of my PC’s. Both the bad and the good are Riad 1. Do you think that will make any difference?? Will I have to swap both drives to repair or should 1 be enough and will auto repair the mirror? They’re both SATA and all 4 drives are 320 GB WD’s. Both are XPHE sp2.
Thanks for any help:
Bill
Bill, this does complicate matters somewhat. I would not move your broken computer’s RAID1 volume to the working computer unless you are confident it will not break the mirror. If the RAID controller or motherboard is the same model, you may be fine to move both drives and have the working computer pick up the RAID set/mirror, but it’s a risky thing to try. The RAID metadata should be stored on the disks, so if the motherboard/raid controller is the same then it ought to work, but I don’t know if I’d like to try it!
With regard to working on a single disk.. well, you could just take one disk, repair the registry on it, and then use that disk alone in the broken computer. Since it’s a RAID1 mirror this should work fine, but how your RAID controller will react when you re-introduce the other member disk later I don’t know. How does the controller know which disk is “good” / up to date, and which isn’t? Perhaps if you ran the computer off the single disk for a while, maybe the metadata has a timestamp of last write/last seen or something. This would be OK as long as you didn’t just reconnect both drives right away, since the good disk was modified in another system and not through the RAID controller. You’d have to run the computer off the single disk first, then re-introduce the other disk later. I just don’t know how these RAID controllers know which disk is up to date and which isn’t. I’d like to know though if anybody has the answer.
I think if I was doing it, I would take a copy of the corrupt registry file and its corresponding log file and work on it (repair it as per the instructions in this guide), and then copy it back afterwards. I would probably think about using the Windows Recovery Console to take this copy over to a flash disk or a spare hard disk, and I’d do the chkdsk first from within the recovery console too. You may need the RAID drivers on an F6 floppy disk for the recovery console to pick up your RAID volume properly.
Alternatively I would work on the single disk, get the machine working off that one disk and completely erase the other disk with something like DBAN or Acronis’ disk erasing tool, so that it can be re-introduced as a completely new disk and the mirror synced over to it.
..it is a complicated situation. Whether you try this repair trick, or revert to a backup, you’re going to need the recovery console on the broken computer anyway I would think.
Heya m8. sounds like you know what your doin..
so could you please please try and help me..?
the error im getting is “windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM”
i 1st tried fixing this error the MS way.. but when typing the 1st command in (md tmp) it just says “cannot create directory or folder” something like that..
and it wont copy any of the files.
so i tried your way.. but it wont load the hive..
it says “Cannot load e:\windows\system32\config\system: error while loading hive.”
i dont know if this makes any difference but my main hdd (the one that if fcuked) is a RAID set 0..
so im bootin off an old HDD i had.. i installed the RAID drivers so it would pick up the RAID hdds.. and the pc is finding them ok.
but i can copy files off the main hdd fine.. but when i try and copy the SYSTEM file from the windows config folder it pops up the error “cannot copy system: the device is not connected.” and windows pops up the error “windows - delayed write failed. windows was unable to save all the data for the file e:\$mft. the data has been lost. this error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. please try to save this file elsewhere.” then fcuks up the hdd as it says this error comes up for any any file that i try and copy.. but like i said before.. before i copy that system file i can copy any of the files from the hdd.. :S its only after i copy that system file it all goes fcuked up..?
if any one knows how to help it would be much much appreciated.. thanks Chris Reed
Hi Chris. I’m afraid what you are describing is much more than a corrupt registry. It sounds like you have a very broken filesystem and/or disks. How did the chkdsk part of the procedure go?
You can run chkdsk from a command prompt to see some information about the process.
RAID 0.
Hard disks are guaranteed to fail. In my experience a drive has a good chance of failing within a few years, and it’s not uncommon for a drive to fail in the first six months. I really wouldn’t risk RAID0 by itself in future, or at least have a nightly image backup with TrueImage or something.
thanks for replying so fast..
i know i was thinking that.. but the only thing that is bugging me is that i can backup all files onto my 500gb usb hdd, untill i try and copy any files from the e:\windows\system32\config folder then i get errors for any other file i try and copy.. even the files that would copy before i copyed any files from e:\windows\system32\config folder..
well the chkdsk was fine no errors or anything..
i do a backup weekly onto my usb drive..
one thing i didnt say last time was that i tryed to reinstall a copy on windows xp pro on top of the one that is all ready installed (as that should keep my existing files, and only update the windows files) but it wouldnt let me do that.. as it would come up with some error..
so what would you suggest..?
only think i can think of doin is to delete the RAID0 (as that would wipe the x2 drives) and install a fresh copy on windows on to one of the drives and dont run them as a RAID.. run them as x2 seperate hdds?
but i realy didnt ready want to go and install all my drivers and programs and games again.. is there a way where i wouldnt need to do any of that reinstalling drivers and so on..?
i know all my files are backed up but its a right pain in my ass sorting all my files, drivers, game saves and partitions out again..
thanks for your help.. chris reed
Hmm. Well, as usual I am guessing here, but it sounds to me like you have a bad/unreadable sector on one of the disks, in the area where the registry files are stored. It sounds as though your RAID controller is seeing the failure and then taking the drive offline.
When it all goes pear shaped, get your ear close to both disks and try to see if one of the drives is making “buggered noises”, i.e. repetitive clicking or clunking. The system event log might give an idea as to which drive is having problems, or maybe your RAID controller has a management application/console which will tell you.
What you can do then is get a drive of equal or larger size, and use a sector-based disk cloning tool to image the entire bad drive, sector by sector, to a new disk.
Use a non-RAID controller to do this, in case the RAID controller leaves out/ignores the RAID metadata of the disk when the application is cloning, and because we’re guessing that the RAID controller offlines drives when it sees a bad sector.
Prosoft Media Tools Pro will do sector by sector cloning, but hopefully you can find a free application to do the same.
hmm. sounds a bit complicated to me lol
shouldnt chkdsk find the bad sectors if it had any..?
and if i clone the bad drive wont that just clone the unreadable or bad sectors so it would still be a messed up drive..?
only thing is, is all this cloning and so on would just take the same time as reinstalling all the drivers again and sorting all my files..
but are you staying that if i just delete the RAID0 (as that would wipe the x2 drives) and install a fresh copy on windows on to one of the drives and dont run them as a RAID.. i could still find my self find similar errors a few weeks or days down the line because one of the drives could be fcuked..?
sorry to keep on to you.. i know its not your problem to sort out.. lol
but again i do appreciated your help.. thanks
chkdsk will only find bad sectors if you ask it to, by doing “chkdsk /r” from a command prompt or ticking “scan and attempt recovery of bad sectors” when using the mouse. This will take a very long time to do.
I suppose it might be worth doing, just to observe what happens. I suspect the RAID0 volume will fail part way through the chkdsk.
The point of cloning is to end up with a drive that doesn’t have bad sectors, only small amounts of missing data where the unreadable sectors were on the bad disk, which can be dealt with later. A bad sector is a physical failure of part of the disk.
If there are 512 bytes per sector, and you have a 100gb drive, then that is 200 million sectors. You might have 60 or a couple of hundred or so bad sectors.
Whichever way you do it, you need to find out which (if any) of the disks is failing and replace it, then either reformat and start again or attempt to retrieve the data to a good disk.
Carl, A friend of mine showed me how to use the usb to ata/sata adapter and the steps you show to recover hive, all is well till I choice the file and give it the name badpc, then I get an error message that says the process is being used. The corrupt hive is the security.
Any help would be greatful.
Are you sure you’re picking the correct drive Rick, and you’re not trying to load the hive off the C: drive?
It sounds strange. I’ll have a play when I get a minute and see if I can duplicate the problem.
Thanks Carl, how would I know which drive I’m working with in regedit?
Well, in regedit when you go to File -> Load Hive, you should be going to E:\ or F:\ or whatever (not C: for sure), then Windows, then System32 then Config.
I am wondering if you are instead going to the C: drive by accident, which means you’re trying to load the hive of the computer that you’re working from, rather than the drive that’s plugged in via USB.
ok, this may be my problem, I’ll look closer at where I am .
Thank you so much. if this works you’ll be my hero.
Hi Carl,
First of all, you are to be commended for helping so many out with their pc problems. Thanks!
My desktop seems to give me the “Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM” error every couple of days. Up till now, I have been just doing a clean install of XP each and everytime, as there is no important data I need to save on this desktop - it’s just for surfing the web and watching movies. All my real info is on an external HDD USB’d to my laptop. Anyways, my question is: what do you think the problem with my desktop could be that I encounter this error so often? (Note: whenever my computer is about to crash and restart on me, I can hear a click noise come from the desktop hdd, and then I get the blue screen of death, then upon restart that error pops up.)
Please advise!
Thanks Ryan
It’s hard to say what might be causing it in your case, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s not just one-off soft corruption of the registry data/filesystem. I’m not sure if you’re describing the repetitive clicking of bad sectors on a disk. If it was bad sectors, then my repair procedure probably wouldn’t work.
It’s likely to be either a failing hard disk, perhaps in some way other than just typical bad sectors, a dodgy HDD cable, or failing motherboard (IDE/SATA controller specifically). I suppose faulty RAM could be causing your BSOD and then leaving you with a corrupt registry from the dirty shutdown, but it’s unlikely that bad RAM would give you the exact same problem every time - things tend to be a bit more unpredictable with bad RAM (lots of BSODs, crashing programs, but no rhyme or rhythm to it).
At least a good RAM test is free and easy to do. Just burn an ISO image of memtest86+ ( http://www.memtest.org/#downiso) to a CD and boot your computer from it. Let it run a couple of complete passes.
I’d probably start with a new hard disk though, they’re cheap enough, and for the price of an IDE or SATA cable, I’d swap that too.
Next thing on my mind would be the reliability of the motherboard. Can you see any bulging or leaking capacitors on the motherboard (like at http://www.badcaps.net) ? I’ve never see bad caps cause this though.. they usually cause spontaneous reboots and noisy onboard graphics.
Well Carl, actually any of those things you mentioned could be my problem - because the computer in question here is very old and I may be trying to beat a dead horse!
I built the computer from different parts obtained from eBay/newegg/etc circa 1995. Put it this way: I built this computer while in high school, I’m now graduated from college and married. Think it’s time for a new computer?
Just for the sake of troubleshooting, I’m going to conclude that I either have a bad hard drive drive, a bad IDE cable, or a bad motherboard, or any combination of all.
I’ll go buy a new computer now. Thanks!
LOL, that should fix it
Unfortunately it is sometimes a case of trial and error with finding bad hardware, and if you don’t have spares on hand that can be hard to do.
Carl, I just used your fix at a client office to great effect. Worked flawlessly. You are the man. Thanks!
Carl,
You rock! I went through the web looking for an answer to the corrupted file issue and found the knowledge base article and many references to it. And at the bottom of the list was your article.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
With over 10,000 pictures on the affected HDD, I was loathe to go through the restore method from MS as I feared it would have wiped out all info in the registry and file system. Using another computer and your method, inside of 30 minutes I had repaired the damaged file.
I have delved into the registry before, Embarcadero stores their registered datasources there, and used export/import to move these entries to another computer.
So while I am hating MS for allowing the registry to get corrupted in the first place, I have to admit a certain fondness in my heart for regedit and its ability to heal the damaged files.
Thanks again,
Chuck Fox
Hi Carl
I just wanted to know that when you say ” You just need to get that hard drive into a working Windows XP computer for a few minutes.”, does that also mean a “working Windows Vista” computer as well. The computer that I am having problems with is XP but the laptop I want to plug it into is Vista. Thanks.
Michael
Well, that’s brightened up my day. Thanks very much guys
Michael: I’m not sure if I’ve tested with Vista, but I expect it will work just fine. I had Vista on my laptop for a while, until I just couldn’t take it any more, and I think I might have done this procedure at that time, I just can’t really remember. Give it a whirl, I think it’ll be OK.
Hi Carl
I am getting the message “Registry Editor not responding.” I have Spybot running and it constantly has pop ups asking me whether I want to allow various registry changes. Would this be the problem? Should I unistall Spybot first? Also, can I just close the Registry Editor? I’m in the middle of naming the hive, ‘Badpc’. Thanks
Michael
Hi Carl
Me again. I have just gotten this message: “Cannot load e:\windows\system32\config\system: error while loading hive.” I read the entry for Creed above. Not sure if your answer applies to me. There is no clicking or clunking from the hard drive that I can hear. Thanks again for you help.
Michael
Hi Michael. I think you should temporarily disable the registry-watching part of Spybot S&D. I think it’s called Teatimer or something, although it’s been a few years since I used Spybot S&D.
If you haven’t actually loaded the hive, i.e it’s not accepted the “badpc” thing and showing it up as a folder/key, then yes you can just exit.
It does sound like a a bad disk. To test, you could just attempt to copy the System and System.log files from e:\windows\system32\config to your desktop or something. If that fails then there’s a disk problem. At the same time check the System Event Log of the computer you’re working from, look for disk related errors.
Actually, forget that. I gather you have disabled Teatimer already, and now Regedit isn’t freezing any more, but it’s just saying “error loading hive”? Well, as long as there are no disk errors in the system log, and if you are able to copy the registry files to the desktop, then your disk is probably fine, however your registry is too corrupted for the log files to be of any use in this repair procedure, so you will need to pull a backup from \System Volume Information (it’s a hidden folder to which you will need to allow yourself access (security permissions), and the System registry file will need renaming from _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM back to just System)
I should add some clarification to the article above, explaining about the possibility of failing hard disks, and those cases where the registry is “really truly screwed”. To be honest though, in my experience this problem is more often than not fixed this way, and other than failing disks, the times where the registry is too corrupt for repairing (as in yours Michael), are not half as frequent as those times where it’s easily fixed this way.
I think it’s just a case that most people only comment here when they’re having difficulties. It makes it appear as though there are only 3 - 4 people who the procedure worked for, and loads who had difficulties. I’m thinking (and hoping!) that many people have succeeded but just not commented.
Hi Carl,
it works great. you saved me… :).i must say coz i had tried all the other possible ways, and your solution is a sure fix.
God bless ya…!!
Usman.
Hi Carl, I find it rewarding when someone with your knowledge can relay the troubleshooting process in laymen terms. My problem happens right at the start. I check the “Show Hidden Files” and I uncheck “Hide protected operating system files”. When I connect the USB to IDE adapter cable the broken computers HDD is not showing up on the good computer when I look for it under My Computer. I went into Device Manager and it does show that I’ve connected another HDD, but it won’t show up as an E: or F: or anything! So I can’t get to the point of running the chkdsk on it. Any suggestions? Thanks! Stephen
Hi Stephen. As long as your hard disk isn’t totally broken, it may just be the master/slave/cable-select jumper on the hard disk. Many computers come with the jumper set to CS (cable select). I have yet to see a USB to IDE adapter that works with the drive set to CS. You have to change the jumper to Master.
Failing that, check the system event log for NTFS or Disk errors during the time you connect the disk via USB.
Carl,
YOU DA MAN!!! You absolutely nailed it! Saved me HOURS of frustration with just a few minutes of fixit time. It took me longer to buy the SATA-USB adapter for this laptop drive than it did to actually fix the problem!
Thank you VERY MUCH! I’ll add you to my “Hall of Fame” fixes!
- - fred
Carl,
My PC is facing this issue. The file missing or corrupt is “C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM”. In the regedit step that you have explained, I’m seeing that this file does not exist. I have made sure that no file is hiding
What do I do? There are only few files I see in Config folder, “software, sam etc.”
Please help.
-Vivek
Hi Carl
Thanks very much for your help. Much appreciated. In the end,I saved the files I needed onto my second laptop, and used the recovery disk to reformat everything. Nothing wrong with the hard drive. Working as good as gold now. It needed a good clean out anyway. But as a computer idiot, just the advice about the SATA-USB cable was invaluable in itself. Thanks again for your advice.
Michael
Carl - I used this fix just yesterday, and it worked like a charm! Thanks so much for posting your comment on software tips and tricks dot com, I had already spent an hour researching how to fix from the windows xp cd before I found this! I am going to bookmark this page and look forward to finding other useful tips on your blog!
Bravo!!!
Finally, a quick and easy fix for a fairly common problem.
Thank you from the world of SEMI-computer-literate would-be geeks
I will be visiting your blog again after you saved my day today!
Hi Carl,
I having the named problem and was very happy to find your blog on the web. However, the fix doesn’t seem to work in my case and I was wondering if you have another idea.
I have an XP installation on the same computer as the corrupted Win2k and tried using that to apply your fix. I loaded the system as a hive in regedit as described but I don’t get the “repaired” message. It seems like the \system file is ok for the xp regedit. I looked at the \system volume information directory but it is empty apart from an empty folder. I double checked that I took the correct directory of the win2k installation.
The problem started when I wanted to install updated drivers for my graphics card. The procedure somehow said “system not modified” and left it at that. When I tried restarting the PC the problem started.
Any ideas?
Many thanks in advance,
Bob
I got it back running. There was an about 5 months old version of system in the config folder which apparently has been created by some other software installation. I had to change some system settings again but at least it’s back now!
And when I tried installing the same NVidia drivers it happened again…
That’s a strange one Bob. At least you know for sure it’s the nVidia drivers.. Google might turn something useful up that’s specific to the nVidia drivers.
hello Carl,
On following your guide for this was successful in getting past my original problem of the corrupt/missing system file. Woo hoo!
However on rebooting the drive in its original PC I have now encountered a new problem - after the windows xp screen appearing for the first time I then get a “lssas.exe - System Error” box with the message “Object Name not found.”
On clicking the OK it just causes a reboot with the same problem.
Any ideas would be gratefully received!!
Kind regards
Update - I managed to resolve the “lssas” issue. Found a useful website http://www.ubcd4win.com and downloaded an application that allowed me to build a boot disc with many handy utilities on a working PC.
I then rebooted the bad PC and once in went to Start, Programs, Registry Tools, Registry Restore Wizard. It asks where Windows is installed (C:\Windows usually). Then I selected the date I wanted to roll back to. I chose the one closest to todays date and it recovered it fine. Rebooted and a louder Woo Hoo - system back and recovered.
I’ve posted this info just in case anyone else experiences the same problem……
Thank you for a useful site…
YOU ARE THE MAN.
I’m an MCSA, not bragging cause it was pretty easy to get that cert. However I have been working in IT for over 15 years and didn’t even think to try your trick –
I had just cloned a 500 gig Raid-0 stripe to a 1 TB Raid-0 with Acronis and the freaking drive just would not boot — I got the C:\windows\system32\config\system missing or corrupt error. somehow Acronis fubared the registry on the clone even though it said it was successful….
I tried mbrfix and it didn’t work, I just didn’t feel like doing recovery console because I would have to find a floppy drive in my house and find the floppy disk with my raid drivers…that wouldve been a major PITA and probably wouldn’t of worked because the system registry was corrupt somehow.
Anyways I booted it up as secondary and fixed the registry per your instructions and this baby is booting now!!!!
You are the freaking MAN. If you are ever in hawaii give me a shout. natxATrocketmailDOTcom!!!
You just saved me from having to completely reload Windows and all applications!
I’m working on a laptop with a corrupted SYSTEM file. I removed the drive and installed it in an external USB enclosure. Connected it to my laptop and was able to get the owners important documents off it and emailed them to her. The owner is currently going for her Masters degree and had just finished an important paper at 2am two nights ago, which was due today. She normally transfers all documents to her flash drive, but she was tired and went to bed without doing this. The next morning, the computer would not start, giving the dreaded missing system files!
I was not able to REPAIR Windows, as the setup disk could not find the original installation. I tried your fix of repairing the hive, but it would not work. What I did was to put the drive back in the external enclosure, connect it to my computer and run chkdsk /r, repair the errors and then try your fix again. SUCCESS!! The laptop now boots up and appears to be running fine. Chkdsk did find numerous bad sectors, so I am going to recommend a new hard drive. In the meantime, all is well…thanks to your “fix”! Thanks again!
Mark
WORKS AMAZING!! Fast and simple. Thanks a million!!
Carl, many thanks your way. You know your stuff and this fix worked great for a laptop that I JUST did a full format and software install on last week (a virus had messed it up pretty good). A week after updating it all, the user came back to me and had a corrupt SYSTEM registry on boot up. I dreaded the chkdsk /r and likely upcoming windows repairs/updates… but this trick got me back in just a handful of minutes!
You’re the man! I’ll be sure to remember this one for future use! Thanks again.
Hi.
I have corrupt registry files, so it says. It will not let me in to the computer - says I must have a password. I never set up a password. And hitting enter does nothing.
I have copied most files to an external drive.
Your “clever way” to repair this appears to be, well, clever.
But when you say
don’t bother with the recovery console though, use your USB to IDE or USB to SATA cable and fix it from your laptop.) Do I have to physically remove the hard drive from the bad computer? Or is it just a matter of hooking the two computers to one another? How? Bad computer is a Dell Dimension 8100 with XP Pro. Thanks