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A horrifying nightmare fiasco

post #1 of 7
8/25/04 at 12:21pm
Thread Starter 
I was upgrading my windows shell and ran into some cpu problems and had to restart. Now I get this...

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

You can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the original Setup CD-Rom.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair.


Well, seems simple enough. So I find my XP cd and boot up. I get to the screen where I'm supposed to press R. I press it. "Windows does not find any harddrives installed on your computer."

I think to myself "ahh must be the sata harddrive I have installed and always used. I guess I need to install the drivers again for this window boot." I install correctly and windows STILL doesn't find the harddrive installed. I'm not on a raid array.

edit: btw I can get into the F8 boot screen but I can't boot into any of the options (Safe, Restore Point, Debug mode)


HELP FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. This is a amd 64 3200+ with a x800 XT PE and well over 100 gb of music and movies.
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post #2 of 7
8/25/04 at 12:27pm
had the same thing on my sager....had to format ...the xp recovery console just didn't work...mine recognized the drive and the os ....but after that it just didn't fix anything just went to a dos prompt

exact same error msg btw...

system/ blah blah blah corrupt or missing blah blah use the recovery console lalalala dun work
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post #3 of 7
8/25/04 at 12:29pm
try booting with a system disk and
type

cd..
cd c:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\

and type

dir /w

make sure you have a file named SYSTEM.. if you do..
copy system.* c:\

then reboot.
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post #4 of 7
8/25/04 at 12:30pm
ive had this problem before...the only was i fixed it was to do a clean install...

ps- what the hell are you doing with 100 gb of music and movies on the same hard drive as your OS?

ppss- im almost positive if you hit r, it will reinstall windows again...(instead of repairing it, it will just reinstall it)
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post #5 of 7
8/25/04 at 12:44pm
You can go in once you get it to recognixe the drives and do like you are going to instal when it detects youalrady have an OS installed jsut tell it to repair form there and it will just copy all the original system files over and you will not have to completely reinstall every thing. I have done this on many ocasions and has saved my butt alot.

Just put in CD> Install Raid driver if needed> do install > hit F8 > when it detects OS look at bottom of screen should see option for Repair( Not the same as intial repair) hit R and it will start over writing your OS. This will leave all otehr APPS installed!
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post #6 of 7
8/25/04 at 9:30pm
100 gb's of music and movies. rofl. i had the same problem with my windows and i had to reinstall, the recovery console didnt do anything.
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post #7 of 7
8/26/04 at 12:09am
Thread Starter 
The problem initially is just finding the correct sata drivers in order for windows to detect the harddrive so I can do a repair. I'll try your approach JimmyMac. My other idea is installing Windows on another harddrive and moving the files that I want. Problem would be getting the programs that utilize registry keys.
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