So your Machine will not boot because \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM file is missing or corrupt.
OK, you surfed the net and found the article about using the Recovery Console to replace the 5 files in the Config folder. So you try booting Recovery Console with the Windows XP disk, but it did not give you any info about which version of WindowsXP to choose, instead it gave an empty command prompt.
This often happens with Raid drives or when you have Windows installed on another drive other than C drive.
Chkdsk could not help because the disk was not recognized (or something to that effect).
Some people have suggested that under this situation you have to essentially reformat disk and reinstall the OS (thus losing all the data, software, settings… you get the idea).
After an all day search, I ran across a post at www.theeldergeek.com forums that worked for me, and in an effort to make sure it stays on the internet, I decided to repost it here on my blog.
They found an alternative to chkdsk which was a big help. Here is a summary.
My machine had three problems.
1. My Windows XP installation was installed on a drive letter other than C drive.
2. My drive was configured as an NTFS filesytem. This filesystem was corrupted. (See below how I found this out).
3. The five registry files mentioned in the following Microsoft article were corrupted.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545
Here we will describe the solution.
* Restoring NTFS filesystem
Normally chkdsk does this. But as discussed above, chkdsk was not helpful in my case. I restored the NTFS filesystem using ntfsfix available with Knoppix (and may be other Linux based recovery CDs).
- Download and burn a Knoppix CD ( as an image, not data on another machine)
- Boot using Knoppix CD
- The desktop will have icons showing the disks recognized by Knoppix.
Since I had 2 drives, I had two icons on my desktop.
- Double click on the drive icons. The drive will be mounted in READONLY mode
(if our drive can be mounted then its good news)
The icon will now be replaced by another icon showing the mounted drive.
- Browse through the filesystem of each drive, and find the one containing your WINDOW directory.
- Rightclick on the icon for the mounted drive. Convert it to ‘READ-WRITE’ (from READONLY).
At this stage, Knoppix is likely to give an error that it cannot change the drive to RW mode because the NTFS filesystem is corrupted. The message
also says that you need to use chkdsk (on Windows) or else use ntfsfix. This is how I learned that the NTFS filesystem was corrupted.
- Now rightclick on the drive and unmount it.
- Open a terminal window (with the k-shell prompt)
- Use the command “ntfsfix”. Use the command “man ntfsfix” to learn how to use ntfsfix, or ntfsfix -help.
In my case I had type the following command.
% ntfsfix yourdriveletters
Notice the “yourdriveletters” above, the name of the icon for the drive on your desktop should give you some hint on the right parameter for you.
Don’t forget to read the disclaimer given by ntfsfix. Before you go further, think whether you need to save any data from your disk. If your disk is mounted correctly by Knoppix, its your chance to backup data you need. If ntfsfix goofs up, you’d lose this opportunity.
* Restoring Registry Files
I tried rebooting after doing ntfsfix, but still received the same error message about the SYSTEM32/… file not found.
At this point If you have Windows on your C drive you could try using Windows XP Recovery Console and followed the steps in this MS article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545.
I didn’t attempt it. Once my boot failed, I went back to Knoppix and did what is recommended in the MS article, but using Knoppix. Of course, to make changes to the filesystem, it should be mounted in RW mode (following the steps listed before).
I used another external drive to make backup of the registry files.
After restoring the five registry files, I was able to reboot.
I had everything intact and went in and did a system restore to the previous day just in case.
Everything has been running smoothly since then and it’s been over a week.
One more bit of advise before I sign off… whatever you do, don’t wiggle the powerstrip cord that your computer is plugged into while the computer is trying to boot up in the mornings… it will cause you a great deal of stress while you go through the above process hoping and praying you didn’t just wipe out your entire computer and all everything on it!