Hatrack River Forum: Computer help mayfly. I can't get Windows XP to boot up

This is topic Computer help mayfly. I can't get Windows XP to boot up in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :

I've had the blue screen of death twice today on my old laptop running Windows XP.

After the second time, I got this message on startup:

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\Windows\System32\Config\system"

I have two discs that came with the laptop, one says Operating System (reinstallation disc and other stuff), and the other is Drivers and Utilities.

I tried to find the solution online that involved using the OS disc, pressing F12, booting up the OS disc, and it took me to Windows Setup, and then I was told to go to Recovery Console, but none of the suggested actions from there seemed to work.

Is there a way to fix it without totally reinstalling the OS, even just to get me to Safe Mode (which doesn't work) to get my files? Lots of help sites on Google seem to think there's a way, but I tried a couple and nothing worked. If not, how do I reinstall the OS from scratch?

Any help would be appreciated, this is simply outside my comfort zone involving computers. Also, this laptop is my baby, I've had it for a decade. I'm not ready to let go yet. [Frown]

Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :

Update

I think I fixed it?

I typed in chkdsk /p in the command line, and restarted, and it works now, I think, but I have no idea what I did.

I'll delete this thread in a day, but I'm curious if anyone could explain what the problem was, and how I solved it.

Posted by Stone_Wolf_ (Member # 8299) on :

Back up your data! I don't know what happened, or how you fixed it or if it will happen again, but it might...so save your files to a disk or external hd right away!

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

I completely agree with SW. This may be only a brief reprieve.

Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :

Thanks. [Smile]

That's the first thing I did!

Usually I back things up once a month, but I got complacent.

Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :

Alright, I'm having a similar problem. My computer died again (I think the hard drive is on life support, but I love my computer, I've had it for almost a decade).

I get the BSOD on a fairly regular basis. Whenever it's left idle for more than 10 or 15 minutes it dies. But it always works on start up. This time it gave me the system32/config error, but it was a software rather than system error. I tried what I did last time, but it just told me there was an error, it didn't fix it like last time.

So I looked around for help and I copied and moved a lot of files around in the Recovery program. Now the SAM file is missing, and it was the one file that wouldn't copy when I tried to use the boot disc to copy it. At one point I had it so it would start up, but I couldn't access any of my files, it was a generic administrator user using a password I had to remember from like a decade ago.

How do I get the SAM file into the config folder so it will let me in?

Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :

Your disk might actually be damaged... Anyway, here's what I found about recovering the SAM file: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316751. Hope it helps.