Missing or corrupt hive

[Pawnless Endgame]

I know the answer to this problem - I have a burning question about it. The error message appears as white text on a black background just after the PC POSTs. It reads as follows:

Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

The solution is to boot into the recovery console using a WXP CD, copy the default registry from C:\Windows\Repair in place of the bad reg files. This brings the PC back to default. To get the last-known-good reg files, you have to go into C:\System Volume Information and copy from there.

I work on a helpdesk for disabled students and I often get bugged with this problem. In year 2003, I implemented this fix 3 times. 2004 and 2005 were free from this problem. In year 2006, the problem came back and I had to deal with it no less than 10 times!

It only happens with Windows XP. The other burning problem I get is when the PC goes into a reboot loop no matter which option you press on the F8 "advanced options" menu. The fix is to run a chkdsk /r on the recovery console. Again, only on WXP. I have dealt with this problem on 18 PCs now. I have never seen these 2 problems on my own PC but it is very common amongst customer PCs. Any idea on causes?

Thanks.

 

[Raumarik]

I've never fixed the hive problem the way you did, there's always a backup of the system hive in the same folder and each time I've simply removed the knackered one and renamed the older file. Has worked so far and usually leaves the computer almost in the same condition as before the error (as it takes a backup of that file regularly.

I've never seen the fault happen but each time I've seen it oddly it's been on low usage and carefully used PCs so I don't think it's stuff getting installed etc. I have noticed it happens far less often on computers with system restore turned off and I haven't had the error in 8 months since I disabled this on every PC in the school (about 140 or so now with XP SP2). I would have expected to get this a couple of times by now but it could just be a coincidence (disabled it as it was slowing down the PCs and since they're all imaged it's fairly pointless.)

I don't really think there is an underlying cause, at least not a single one. Oddly I have got it once on my parents PC and trust me they hardly use it. I do suspect it's possibly more to do with the computer being shut down/turned off correctly rather than system restore. My parents do have a habit of hitting shut down and then flicking the power switch ARGH! I've asked them to wait the FIVE SECONDS it takes to shut down about a million times now..

It's an annoying error though, granted we didnt see it in Windows 2000 but the blue screens on windows 2000 could easily mean roughly the same thing but just poorly explained, lets face it with W2K some of the error messages are cryptic to say the least!

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

Thanks for the explanation Kami. You have summed it up really nicely! Yes, annoying it can be. We receive all manner of PCs, from very clean right down to P2P addicts who introduce spyware!! Although I'll check my fault logs, I'm pretty sure that this very problem does tend to happen on the cleaner machines.