Anyone here had " Windows/system32/config/system files corrupt or missing" at boot?

NeilF

NeilF

NeilF

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My brother's Toshiba laptop is currently getting this?

Anyone here had it and overcome it without losing their entire machine (hard drive)? Needless to say he hasn't done any backups of all his stuff :rolleyes:
 
You can attempt to repair the files by starting windows setup using the original setup CD. Select "r" at the first screen to start repair. This will reset your XP installation back to its installation defaults though. :)
 
I had this error on my sisters Gateway (ancient) and it appeared after inserting a new stick of RAM. Took out the RAM booted fine.
 
iCraig said:
You can attempt to repair the files by starting windows setup using the original setup CD. Select "r" at the first screen to start repair. This will reset your XP installation back to its installation defaults though. :)
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If you press 'R', you'll go into the recovery console. Select install now and then Windows setup should see your current installation and give you the option to repair it.

Also, a repair installation will keep all programs and the registry intact. It only copies system files back to the sysroot directory.

Burnsy
 
Burnsy2023 said:
If you press 'R', you'll go into the recovery console. Select install now and then Windows setup should see your current installation and give you the option to repair it.

Also, a repair installation will keep all programs and the registry intact. It only copies system files back to the sysroot directory.

Burnsy
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Cheers... He has some 'recovery' disks from Toshiba so hopefully this will do this! And not reformat etc...


I think before I'll do it I'll get him to come around and see if I can shove his hard drive in an old 2.5" cradle I got and copy off the stuff he wants... Just incase...
 
To my knowledge the Recovery disks supplied with the machine is an image of how the computer was when it left the factory. So it will erase all data on the hard drive.
 
Put in the windows CD, boot from it and select R - and then enter chkdsk /r


Should fix it, if not run the windows repair installation
 
swinnie said:
I had this error on my sisters Gateway (ancient) and it appeared after inserting a new stick of RAM. Took out the RAM booted fine.
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Also listen to this man. If you havn't added RAM it may actually be fautly. I've had this issue before when replacing RAM in previous systems of mine. Put the new stuff in and don't set it correctly in the BIOS and all hell breaks loose.
 
EvilFranky said:
Also listen to this man. If you havn't added RAM it may actually be fautly. I've had this issue before when replacing RAM in previous systems of mine. Put the new stuff in and don't set it correctly in the BIOS and all hell breaks loose.
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No ram has been added (ever)...
 
swinnie said:
To my knowledge the Recovery disks supplied with the machine is an image of how the computer was when it left the factory. So it will erase all data on the hard drive.
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This is my fear...

If I can get a copy of XP Home (which is what this laptop is using) can I use the repair option from that? (Rather than the "take off and nuke the entire site from orbit" approach of the Toshiba recovery discs)
 
If it's an OEM copy, the COA (containing the product key) will be affixed to the machine somewhere. If it's not, it's not licenced.

Burnsy
 
Cheer for all the help! He'll be dropping it off next week when the battle will commence!

Thanks again!
 
Before doing anything further, if i was you i would run Memtest from a floppy or CD to check the ram. Something caused this to happen in the first place, and it shows all the classic signs of ram going belly up. It will be a complete waste of time trying to do any install/recovery with faulty ram in place. For the same reason, i would remove the hard drive and just get the important Data off of it for your brother. As has been said, "recovery discs" are images, so it will wipe the hard drive.
 
kitfit1 said:
Before doing anything further, if i was you i would run Memtest from a floppy or CD to check the ram. Something caused this to happen in the first place, and it shows all the classic signs of ram going belly up. It will be a complete waste of time trying to do any install/recovery with faulty ram in place. For the same reason, i would remove the hard drive and just get the important Data off of it for your brother. As has been said, "recovery discs" are images, so it will wipe the hard drive.
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OK.. Will do...

Would the faulty RAM be causing this error full stop, or have caused this error on the hard drive? ie: If it is the RAM at fault, would replacing it solve it, or is a repair/re-install still going to be needed no matter what?
 
I used to get this with my old Iwill KK266 rig every few months and recovering it was never the easiest thing to do. I used to just do a reinstall in the end.
 
NeilFawcett said:
OK.. Will do...

Would the faulty RAM be causing this error full stop, or have caused this error on the hard drive? ie: If it is the RAM at fault, would replacing it solve it, or is a repair/re-install still going to be needed no matter what?
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Faulty ram will cause the drive to become corrupted, hence the error your brother is seeing. As i said, run Memtest to confirm this. If Memtest confirms it, then replace the ram. Once the ram is replaced, then try booting into Windows and see if the errror is still there. If it is, then a re-install/re-image is your best option. Either way, get the data off the drive first.
 
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