Windows unable to boot. system file is corrupt

A friend of mine got the following error message. "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: WINDOWSSYSTEM32CONFIGSYSTEM." He asked me to fix it. The pc is a Dell Dimension 8300 running XP Home.

I have had this happen to me before and fixed using the recovery console. However this I'm running into problems.

First off, I have already been here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545

and here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_sys32.htm

Tried both articles but something happens that is not supposed to. For instance "file not found", or "This file cannot be copied."

In microsoft's article they say to do this:

md tmp
copy c:windowssystem32configsystem c:windowstmpsystem.bak
copy c:windowssystem32configsoftware c:windowstmpsoftware.bak
copy c:windowssystem32configsam c:windowstmpsam.bak
copy c:windowssystem32configsecurity c:windowstmpsecurity.bak
copy c:windowssystem32configdefault c:windowstmpdefault.bak

delete c:windowssystem32configsystem
delete c:windowssystem32configsoftware
delete c:windowssystem32configsam
delete c:windowssystem32configsecurity
delete c:windowssystem32configdefault

copy c:windowsrepairsystem c:windowssystem32configsystem
copy c:windowsrepairsoftware c:windowssystem32configsoftware
copy c:windowsrepairsam c:windowssystem32configsam
copy c:windowsrepairsecurity c:windowssystem32configsecurity
copy c:windowsrepairdefault c:windowssystem32configdefault

The problem is when i type the second line "copy c:windowssystem32configsystem c:windowstmpsystem.bak", it tells me that "This file cannot be copied." So It seems I can't proceed onto the next steps?

I have also tried doing a repair install. That seemed unsucessfull. I was nowhere presented after the ULA to make a repair install of my current install.

I would much like to avoid a reinstall of windows.

Any help is appreciated.

Try this:

Insert the xp boot disk and reboot
when the message pops up to "press any key to boot from the cd" press any key
let the install start.
an the first menu press "R" to repair
when the next menu pops up, press the number that coresponds to "c:\windows"
at the next prompt either enter the admin password or if there isnt one just press enter.
at the c:\windows prompt type in chkdsk /r and press enter.
at this point walk away for a while, this process can take minutes to hours to complete
when it's done type "exit" and remove the cd as the computer is rebooting. IF THAT DIDNT WORK, and sometimes it doesn't, you may HAVE to reinstall. Sometimes this works, and sometimes not. It all depends on how many files are corrupted. Good Luck.

-Matt-

I got this problem randomly one day after leaving my computer on while I was away. I did the repair thing but once it got to the "enter the number that corrospods to C:Windows" I would give it its number press enter, and it would freeze completly. (left it to think for 4 days and it never did anything) My only solution was to reformat using FDisk and then reinstall.


What I can't understand is what caused the problem. I did absoulutly nothing to the computer and yet I come back to find it needs a reinstallation.

Screw Mircrosoft.

instead of copy, you could use move.

By the way, are you putting slashes in all of those? Cause I haven't seen you type a single slashes.

No help, but experience.
Whenever this showed up, I remember this from my deskstar 40gb's raid 0, it meant I had to reinstall everything cause windows was ******. Never tried raid again, never had the problem again.

NsOmNiA91130 said:

By the way, are you putting slashes in all of those? Cause I haven't seen you type a single slashes.

Click to expand...

exactly it should be

C:\
C:\
C:\

Normally, instead of suggesting to follow the steps in the MSKB article you linked to afa recovering from the dreaded "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM" error...I suggest an alternate way of performing the same function, albeit much simpler and less time consuming. Boot to the Recovery Console like the article suggests, but instead type the following commands (hitting ENTER after each)...

cd system32\config
ren system system.old
ren system.alt systemalt.old
copy c:\windows\repair\system
copy c:\windows\repair\regback\system
exit

matttaylor said:

Try this:

Insert the xp boot disk and reboot
when the message pops up to "press any key to boot from the cd" press any key
let the install start.
an the first menu press "R" to repair
when the next menu pops up, press the number that coresponds to "c:\windows"
at the next prompt either enter the admin password or if there isnt one just press enter.
at the c:\windows prompt type in chkdsk /r and press enter.
at this point walk away for a while, this process can take minutes to hours to complete
when it's done type "exit" and remove the cd as the computer is rebooting. IF THAT DIDNT WORK, and sometimes it doesn't, you may HAVE to reinstall. Sometimes this works, and sometimes not. It all depends on how many files are corrupted. Good Luck.

-Matt-

Click to expand...

This worked. It repaired the system file so I could copy it. I didn't think chkdsk would do this. Thanks matt.

However, I ran into another annoyance when following Microsofts instructions. When they say to "copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system" the respone is "The file cannot be found." Thats because there is no file in c:\windows\repair named 'system' instead its named 'system.bak'. I had to rename 'system.bak' to just 'system' and then copy the repair file.

Trombe said:

I got this problem randomly one day after leaving my computer on while I was away. I did the repair thing but once it got to the "enter the number that corrospods to C:Windows" I would give it its number press enter, and it would freeze completly. (left it to think for 4 days and it never did anything) My only solution was to reformat using FDisk and then reinstall.


What I can't understand is what caused the problem. I did absoulutly nothing to the computer and yet I come back to find it needs a reinstallation.

Screw Mircrosoft.

Click to expand...

This happend to me also. Is your windows install on a SATA drive? Mine was and I had to load the sata driver (f11 during install cd) in order for the console to see my drive. Then I was able to repair.

NsOmNiA91130 said:

By the way, are you putting slashes in all of those? Cause I haven't seen you type a single slashes.

Click to expand...

Yes I was . I copied that text and for some reason the slashes didn't copy over.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Another thing is that I have heard that if you have an OEM Windows cd, but the install came off of a Restore cd, like the one that came with my old Emachines, then there would be some problems getting some files from the Windows cd. I don't know if this is for sure true, as I had just used a Windows cd when I had to reformat my old Emachines. I never played around with the Restore cd, came with too much bundled that I really didn't want. Another thing that I have wondered about working, if you set up the problem drive as a slave in another working computer, and try to extract the file from the WinXP cd to where it should be on the slave HDD. I don't know for sure if this method really works, but I have heard of a few experts being able to do this with some good results.