Windows Install Recovery Help Please :)

leezer3

leezer3

leezer3

Soldato
Joined
18 Jan 2006
Posts
3,122
Location
Norwich
Hiya guys,
First time I've really had the chance to crank up the clocks, and what do I do?- Break it!
Anyway, corrupted something somewhere on the HDD in the Windows registry hives, and get errors about them being missing. Fair enough- Boot to the XP CD & perform a CHKDSK to deal with the errors.
Reboot and get told they are corrupted :rolleyes:
So, I boot the XP cd intending to do a repair install- The recovery console sees the install fine and can access it, and the setup of the machine could do with a cleanout anyway. However, and this is the big but ATM, I'm unable to select the repair install option from the setup- I'd assume this is probably because the registry is toast.
I can't do the standard MS 'fix' for a corrupt registry as this needs system restore to be active, and guess what- I disabled it as a disk space hog. (Not to mention totally messing up MSTS :p )

Thoughts on where to go from here?- Would mildly like to retrive the data on the HDD, nothing major just stuff I've never got round to sticking on DVDs.

Laugh away ;)

-Leezer-
 
I think at this stage the only thing you could do is to put the HD in another machine pull anything off that is useful, then format and doa fresh install.

Sorry to say but if ti wont doa repair then it is properly goosed.
 
Mine was in the same state the other day..
Wasted too much time figuring out what was wrong.
Just get a new HD, install Windows and get all the data, after a clean install.
 
Well, I'm currently in the middle of attempting to repair Grub to get the data off. Pretty sure its all still there, just would have liked to fix the Windows install as opposed to reinstall. (Ubuntu is on there, but the attempts to get the Windows install to play ball trashed Grub)

Still, its been 6 months, two graphics cards and two motherboards, so I do think it was probably about time :p

-Leezer-
 
If it is telling you that one of the Hive files is corrupt. there is a backup of a clean hive file within the windows folder.

Reboot into the repair console and in the windows folder type
Code: 
cd repair 
dir
the dir command will list the files that are in the directory. the ones without file extentions are the backup hive files.

so depending on the file you need type the following
Code: 
copy %hivename% c:\windows\system32\config

and it will ask you to overwrite say 'Y' for yes and then exit to reboot the computer and all shoudl be done.

*Just remember this hive save is from a fresh install an so none of your software will work properly but you will be able to get your files off*
 
Already formatted ;)
(It was the system32\CONFIG missing or corrupt if interested)

I also think I know what caused it- Divider not set low enough :eek:
Ah well, nothing major really, although am going through the second set of repair procedures to correct the drive lettering :mad:

Live and learn lol.

-Leezer-
 
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