Plse help! Windows on PC wont load

butterfly72

Hi, I'm currently on my laptop pleading for help.

I've just switched on my PC and windows XP loaded. It all looked a bit not quite right and most of the links didn;t work and the icons normally in the bottom right corner were'n't there. When I pressed the start key the box popped up but with not a lot in it! I tryed to restart and turn off but nothing happened. In fact it wasn't the normal turn off buttons that showed.. it was a drop down option. I ended up having to turn it off via the PC on button.


So I've waited a few mins and turned it back on... now i have a black screen with

'Windows could not start because the follwing file is missing or corrupt \WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM

You can attempt to repari this file by starting windows set up using the original setup CDROM. Select r at the first screen'.

Have pressed r and nothing. Have turned it off and on again and it just come to this black screen with the above.

Any ideas? thanks in advance.

fwor

Do you have the XP installation CD/DVD?

If so, I'd suggest doing a "repair install". That should replace the corrupt system file(s) but leave all of your existing data intact.

In the longer term be prepared for it to recur, as it's often a sign that the hard disk is on its way out.

butterfly72

Thanks. What I have is a XP service pack 1 including consumer range drivers and a Product recovery cd. Either of these?

fwor

If the former is an XP install CD including SP1 then that will work Ok - you just need to be able to boot the PC from it, then select the right options.

If it's only SP1 plus drivers then you'll need to use the recovery CD, but I'm not able to tell you how, as I've never used one... Just make sure you don't let it format the disk or you'll lose all of your existing data!

butterfly72

Ok, so I rebooted with the recovery disk and ended up at a blue screen titled Windows XP HE set up. I pressed 'r' to repair and ended up up in the MS windows recovery console. choose 1 c:windows and now its asking for an administrator password!!! I don't remember setting up a password. Does anyone know of any way I can continue without one??

BTW I have tried just pressing enter.. it said the password was not valid. Am wading through my pc paperwork to see if i can find one.

fwor

Inconvenient, but not a major problem. You can use the following utility to reset the Admin password to anything you want:

http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Choose the Bootdisk link at the top and follow the instructions/warnings.

When running the Recovery CD, you don't actually want the Recovery Console, although it can be a useful first step to run CHKDSK from there.

If the recovery disk behaves the same as an install CD, you need to choose the "install Windows" option, and then it will go away and (hopefully) find your existing installation, and will ask if you want to repair it.

butterfly72

fwor wrote: »

When running the Recovery CD, you don't actually want the Recovery Console, although it can be a useful first step to run CHKDSK from there.

.

Oh dear, its getting a bit confusing now. I might just leave it and find someone to come and do it for me!! Thanks for your help anyway.

fwor

The bit about CHKDSK was unnecessary detail - it's just a utility that checks whether the hard disk file structure is corrupted.

However, I'm fairly sure that if you start off a Repair Install it will begin by doing the same thing anyway automatically.