Critical Windows Error

[Jarek]

The other day the computer in my room (my gaming pc) locked up when it was booting up (it has been locking up here and there recently since the legit windows update but never during the boot up phase.)

Usually it fixes when I power off and reset the power switch, so i did this. Now when I boot up it says that the following file is missing or corrupt:

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

It prompts me to put my data CD and reboot to repair it, so I do and I can get to the Recovery Console, but I have no idea what to do from here..

edit: my bad thought i put this in Tech Center, not TFC Tech

[dramling]

should run a disk scan on it if you ever get it booted up again.
right click c:\ -->properties-->tools-->error check

[Jarek]

how would that help me when the problem is i cannot get it to boot up...

[Jarek]

The registry turned out to be too corrupted to attempt a repair install so I'm going to go ahead and just do a fresh XP install and say goodbye to a years worth of demos, mapping, and all my tfc configs

I at least get to extract a few of my CAD projects to my friends HD so I don't lose my extremely important work stuff, but the rest is gonna poof. I am so sad.

[N4P4LM]

The registry turned out to be too corrupted to attempt a repair install so I'm going to go ahead and just do a fresh XP install and say goodbye to a years worth of demos, mapping, and all my tfc configs

wait!

did you only try using the "repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console." when you booted with the XP cd? because you do have another option for doing a no-reformat rebuild of the XP OS. you can check out this article that was in Information Week: http://informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897 for more details. if i remember correctly, you do not choose the repair option, but you go right ahead and press Enter to set-up windows. and then later on in the process it sees your current installation and rebuilds it. i've never had to use this before, but it's worth a shot in your case.

[MeestarK]

#1, let this be a lesson to you about putting your operating system on a seperate partition from everything else.

Now, nagging aside, you're not screwed with losing all your stuff. Get a copy of a bootable OS, such as Knoppix and get all your files burnt to CDs or DVDs. Then feel free to format and reinstall, this time making TWO partitions.

[Jarek]

Well, I still am not putting windows on a separate partition considering my friend who built the pc (and he does this for a living and i know very little) he strongly advises against it. I honestly don't know why, but he handles my PC issues etc so i put it to him. My computer is made up patchwork stuff pretty much all thrown together to be an affordable but powerful PC (or was last october) so the BIOS had to be tweaked to such an extent that I didn't really want to screw with it that much without his help.

What started the problem was that my computer had initially locked up (a bad sign in the first place, but it happened only when i played diablo2 on my scratched disk) so i reset it. When it was loading windows somehow my foot or something tripped the powerswitch and after i booted up again i got the error above.

In any case I am just going to get a larger flash drive than the one I use for school and work, and just stow all my TFC cfgs and mapping shit on there, the demos I figure I can burn to a disc once a month or something anyways.

[MeestarK]

my friend who built the pc (and he does this for a living and i know very little) he strongly advises against it.
:confused: :confused:

And I still don't know why you didn't just download and boot into a Knoppix Live CD and get your data rather than just format away...

[N4P4LM]

:confused: :confused:

And I still don't know why you didn't just download and boot into a Knoppix Live CD and get your data rather than just format away...

or try the method that i suggested, which is different from the "repair" option in the recovery console...

[Jarek]

i really didn't know what i was doing is all, but he saved a lot more than i thought. my entire steam folder is in tact as well as much of my mapping and CAD stuff.

i had assumed that my windows not being legit was causing all of the locking up, but it turns out my power supply was going bad and it wasn't powering up my hd half the time. probably why i had to reboot and why it corrupted the registry when it froze booting up, at least thats what i assume