Vista: Stop: c000021a {Fatal System Error}, The initial session process or system process terminated unexpectedly.
by Carl Farrington on Sep.16, 2008, under Uncategorized
“Stop: c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The initial session process or system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0×000000000 (some more hex codes)”
Can’t repair this. Trying to pinpoint source of problem.
System Restore through Repair Environment is failing. Replacing registry files with those from RegBack hasn’t helped.
Clean install of Vista, moved contents of system32\config from broken install to clean one, also moved old Users directory, and problem still exhibited. Must be a registry/configuration issue then, not system files.
Now going to try to see if I can pin it down to either System registry or Software.
Update: It is fixed. The problem was within the SOFTWARE hive. I moved all the clean install stuff (Windows , Program Files, Users, ProgramData) to a folder called “clean”, and move all the folders out of Windows.old back into C:\ , so in effect returning the machine back to its original state before the clean install. I then replaced SOFTWARE with SOFTWARE.OLD and all is well.
Something within the Software registry hive was wrong/broken. Hope this helps someone. Not sure why the SOFTWARE hive out of RegBack was no good.
At least we know from now on that troubleshooting “Stop: c000021a {Fatal System Error}, the initial session process or system process terminated unexpectedly.” should be done from within HLKM\Software of the registry, or just replacing the Software hive with a good backup. Earlier in the process I opened regedit from the Repair Environment’s command prompt, and loaded the Software Hive, but it looked bare. There were only Microsoft subkeys, nothing else. Either this is because of the fault, or perhaps it’s a Vista security feature? (no.. it’s not a security feature – see below):
Another update: I have taken the bad software hive, and the good working one (software.old), and loaded them up into Regedit on my XP machine to compare.
Both files are around 45mb, but the bad one is completely bare except for a couple of Microsoft subkeys. I wonder what caused this? Here’s a picture of the two hives – bad-vista and good-vista:
Here the good software hive is compared against the bad one.
Perhaps I am barking up the wrong tree. Maybe the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Reliability\Srt key means “system restore”, and this bare registry is normal during a system restore. Perhaps the registry is supposed to be bare until System Restore finishes after the reboot, and the bare registry wasn’t the actual cause of the stop error. Perhaps the stop error was triggered during System Restore’s finishing up. Who knows. I suppose I could create a restore point on the machine now, and see if System Restore causes the Stop error to return. I might do that.
At least for now, the solution here was to replace software with software.old.
October 14th, 2008 on 8:07 pm
This was my Vista issue as well. I was having trouble with my Lenovo X61T and I finally had it to where it wouldn’t boot and exhibited this error. I booted from a Win PE 2.0 disk and then replaced my SOFTWARE hive with the copy from the RegBack directory and it worked.
October 16th, 2008 on 8:38 am
Cool. That more than confirms it’s a problem in the Software hive then. Thanks for the feedback Richard, I appreciate it.
December 2nd, 2008 on 11:01 pm
More confirmation. After System Restore was failing all over the place and several other approaches, replacing the SOFTWARE hive with the RegBack SOFTWARE.OLD version, I’m finally booting again.
I want the past 3 hours back, dammit.
And thanks.
January 12th, 2009 on 1:11 pm
My friend can not install Windows VISTA. This error apper
February 5th, 2009 on 1:22 am
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March 14th, 2009 on 6:51 pm
Hello Carl,
I have the same issue with my Vista pc. Could you please give details on replacing the SOFTWARE hive with the copy from the RegBack directory? Also is it possible to do by booting the pc with a WinPE disk and leaving the harddrive in the pc? Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
March 16th, 2009 on 1:09 pm
Hi Tony. A WinPE disk should do fine, or just boot from the Windows Vista disk in repair mode, and choose to start a Command Prompt then type:
CD \Windows\System32\Config [enter]
move Software Software.bad [enter]
move Regback\Software [enter]
exit [enter]
and reboot.
April 2nd, 2009 on 4:34 am
Thanks a lot, this info just helped me out finally after 4 hours!
Thanks Carl!
May 5th, 2009 on 7:48 pm
hey carl
i just got this problem
i was wondering how exactly do you
boot up the vista disk in repair mode
and hoe you get the command prompt up
thanks a lot
May 7th, 2009 on 5:01 pm
I have tried your repair of the software via the command prompt but when I type
CD \Windows\System32\Config [enter]
move Software Software.bad [enter]
I get an error that states the process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process
then when I type
move Regback\Software [enter]
i get an error that states the system cannot find the file specified
can you please help
thanks
May 15th, 2009 on 11:20 am
I’m getting this error, but I can’t understand exactly what you did. Could you explain it step by step so even a rookie user like me can understand it?
I get the same message as Jim wrote about above me when I go into Vista CD and cmd.
May 19th, 2009 on 11:43 am
Hi
I booted my vista pc into a live ubuntu disk and was able to copy the files across that way
Cheers
May 29th, 2009 on 2:03 pm
I have been trying to work this out for months! thank you!
June 26th, 2009 on 10:18 pm
hey guys im having major problems
a couple weeks ago my computer running vista 32bit would not boot up by itself and if i put in the boot disk and use start up repair and it would work fine then it would randomly shut down. now i just get the blue screen of death saying c000021a 0×00000000 (0xc000000 0×001006000)
does anyone know how to repair this without having me lose all my files??
also i took out the bad hardrive of my computer put it in an external case but cant excess the files because theres my user password on it and i do not know how to access it. is there anyway to get around the password or enter the password to access my hdd??
help is much much appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-adam
August 1st, 2009 on 11:24 pm
May I ask, is the cause of this a virus? I am having the same problem with my hp laptop and thought it was from a virus sent to me in an email.
August 21st, 2009 on 6:50 pm
OMG This helped me! After 4 days of trying! Thank u so much! Iove you man!
October 1st, 2009 on 5:20 pm
@carl…
thanks a ton man….it worked…i thought i’ll have to format but your idea just went fine..
@jim
first go to your windows installation directory,
then after apply the commands.Don’t apply in windows installation disk directory.i made the same mistake too firstly..
thanks again carl..!!!! u \m/
January 23rd, 2010 on 8:41 pm
How do you get a WinPE disc?
March 2nd, 2010 on 9:34 pm
marry me! it worked. Great!