Laptop problem!!

Countcussy

Countcussy

Countcussy

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Joined
10 Nov 2006
Posts
1,345
My boss has just returned from Canada, during which time his Toshiba Satellite A30 has suffered an error. He has asked me to look at it, but i am a bit stumped.

Windows will not boot, even in safe mode and gives the error,

File may be missing or corrupt C:\Windows\system32\config\system

Now I have encountered this before, and fixed it with recovery console, but, even though there is no admin password set, windows tells me that the password for the recovery console is wrong. I have tried 2 XP discs, my own and a Dell one from work, as the discs shipped with the Tosh are full recovery discs, which will wipe the hard drive. I hope to avoid this.

Now, I have the XP key for this machine, but not the disk. If i do a repair installation with my own SP2 XP disc, will the existing XP key work, or are they disc related.

Do i have any other options? I don`t mind getting my hands dirty in dos, if someone can point me in the right direction. There seems many instances of this invalid password, but the fix always involves windows, which i cant boot to.

I would really appreciate some help with this.
 
Thanks again for the replies. Got into recovery console, did the fix, windows begins to load, get the XP loading screen, but then the following message appears:

"When trying to update a password, this return status indicates that the value provided as the current password is incorrect." System reboots.

Reading around the web, it seems that the Toshiba oem install of XP does things a little differently, meaning a full install with the recovery disk is the only option.

I am not even able to do a repair, with what i know is a working SP2 disc. It looks like its going to start, but at the point where the setup files are ready and the computer re-boots, it seems to ignore the installed setup files, instead choosing to boot from the existing files, and i end up in a loop

Recovery discs should be banned :(:(
 
Update for those that kindly offered help.

Made myself an Ultimate Windows Boot CD (What a tool btw:D) and accessed the contents of the drive. Had a bit of a play, then replaced the sam, system, security etc. files, with backups I had made.

Tried to go back with the registry, but no backups were found. Ran chkdsk etc..etc.. and re-booted, not expecting much.

I was wrong, Windows booted to the logon screen, where it told me I had to activate windows. I said OK, and it went back to the logon screen. It just kept looping this way. I was sure this was related to IE7, I don`t know why, but I had a feeling I had read this somewhere. Uninstalled IE7 from safe mode, re-booted and voila!!! It offered me the option to activate. Went to bed though as it was gone 2am.

Activated Windows this morning and we are back up and running, with NO data loss. :) I am not convinced that the machine is perfect(It never was), but its up and running and the boss is happy.

Well Chuffed. Thanks again.
 
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