imyourgodnow

I have just rebooted and the PC stops before entering Windows (I have XP Pro) and tells me "the following file is missing or corrupt", and refers me to a file in the system32 folder. I think the file is called "system", but the PC isn't here right now.

In any case, it says to use the recovery console to repair things, but I haven't the slightest idea how or what to do. I'm hoping it's a case of copying a fresh file from CDROM to hard drive, as I stand to lose a fair bit of stuff from my disk if I reinstall.

If anyone can help it would be much appreciated,

cheers

UofEEE

Hey, yes...I got a ASUS A7V333 and when I installed Win XP, I got the same message...I could only chalk it up to a bad board (corrupting data...), so I sent the darn thing back...you wanna give us your system's specs?

madman

the asus a7 is bad about these errors.. the boards i have found to be of hmm bad Q/A.. get a gia or soyo!!

there the best!!

madman

the asus a7 is bad about these errors.. the boards i have found to be of hmm bad Q/A.. get a giga or soyo!!

there the best!!

imyourgodnow

creaking old thing : )

Abit SA6R m/board (w/RAID)
PIII 800
ATI Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO
384 MB SDRAM

Sorry - thats all I can remember, I built it 18 months or so ago and have added loads of stuff (modem, NIC, etc) since.

It's been fine with XP for 6 months.....

UofEEE

Yup..he's right...Epox and MSI boards aren't too bad themselves either...

UofEEE

First, start pulling those add in cards...they may be causing you some grief. Pull everything but your video card. That should give you a bit of a start...

madman

ahh yes epox!!! sweet!!

imyourgodnow

Dammit....I feel stupid now. I had a niggling feeling I'd seen it before - it happened at Xmas after I'd messed with the sound card, and if I ripped it out the PC booted fine.

I'll try this ASAP - could this be an IRQ sharing problem?

I noticed a few weeks ago that lots of things were on the same IRQ (sound, modem, graphics), but was told that it's perfectly normal and OK for XP to stick lots of devices on the same address. I was doing exams so didn't bother trying to change IRQs as I'd have to learn 1st.

Will post when it's worked/failed to tell you what happened.

Thanks again

imyourgodnow

It bloody well didn't work this time!!

Now I have to use the Recovery Console, so does anyone know how to use it?

I apparently have a corrupted \windows\system32\config\system file.

sboulema

The only thing I know is how to get to the console.
Boot from the XP cd and press R when you see the setup-sreen.

But it never helped me that consol, I don't get it, it is so weird.
It's some version of DOS, but it is not completely DOS :confused:

Hope you can solve your problem

Geffy

you need to somehow get into some version of XP DOS, you can make an XP DOS disk by formatting a floppy and telling it to make an MS DOS ...

Then you need to make sure that you also have CD ROM support.

Boot the PC into DOS, access the CD. Get to the i386 folder and type the following

winnt32.exe /cmdcons

Hopefully this will work.
Then Reboot normally and the command Console (aka Recovery Console) will be an availible startup option.

If you made a Automated Recovery thing then you could use that but you risk losing files.

---

Geffy

OK, I just found out how you run Recovery Console from the Setup CD and not from the hard drive.

From the Setup CD-ROM

Insert the Setup compact disc (CD) and restart the computer. If prompted, select any options required to boot from the CD.

When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts; choose the repair or recover option by pressing R.

If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console.

When prompted, type the Administrator password.

At the system prompt, type Recovery Console commands; type help for a list of commands, or help commandname for help on a specific command.

To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit.

---

UofEEE

Also, check to see if your memory timings are correct. I was running my memory at CAS 2 and kept getting errors.

GuardianAtomos

Aight...if you absolutely HAVE to get back into Windows without the restart...insert the XP CD...go through the steps as if you were going to reinstall....and then tell it to "Repair the current Windows installation"....it's not a clean install, true...but, it has NEVER failed me. It just goes through and wipes out everything related to the system...and reinstalls it. EVERYTHING else that's not in the WINDOWS folder will be fine (save a few system files that exist elsewhere). EVEN if you have to do a full install...just override the WINDOWS folder...DO NOT format...I've done it a few times...Windows will function as if it were brand new...BUT, all of your other data will exist...just not in the registry...Windows will think that nothing's installed. So, just reinstall any programs that you had before. All of your other files will be in tact. That's what I like about XP...you can "repair" it and your programs still function (some say this is bad because it leaves "program trials" that never get removed) or you can do a full install and still keep the non-system data that you had before (just not installed). Good luck.

P.S. The recovery console isn't that useful, I've found...I think it's mainly to do stuff like ChkDsk and repair the Master Boot Record and stuff like that...but, ...

imyourgodnow

Thanks, I'll try that tonight. As long as I can get into windows with CD writing support and backup everything I don't mind then reinstalling. This PC's pissing me off now - time to build a new one methinks.

Waldo

Q307545 and Q320252 in the MS Knowledge Base have info on this problem

George

Waldo: You're my hero :-)

It worked :P

And to tell what happened: My father has downloaded xpsp1 and got stuck with this error.

Bob S

Just a thought... if you do have a dual boot. I had this problem with my dual boot after I ran SP1. The system got confused and was looking in the wrong system32 directory (C versus D). I found the answer in the Microsoft Knowledge Base under dual boot errors. What I had to do was overwrite a couple of files.

dave holbon

Waldo is right go here: -

http://support.microsoft.com/default...EN-US;q307545&