XP wilnae boot0r

[.Wilier.]

Friends PC, running XP SP1 with all the current updates, wont boot.
Gets past the post, then gives an error that says something like:

windows/system32/config/system

file is missing or corrupt. You can attempt to repair this file yadayadayada.

Ive booted from the XP CD, and gone for recovery console, opened the file up, and its full of stuff (you know, stuff).
I then looked in the I386 dir of the CD and found the system32 dir, but theres nothing after that, Im assuming the files are created after installing the OS.

Anyone got any idea's?

Ta, Wil

edit//

found this at MS support, just need to sneak the blokes PC past the gate so I can fix it

 

[Shovel]

Ah the infamous corrupt file behavior. When you get it working, do a thorough check of the hard disk of your friend's PC. Dr_Jo's PC did something very similar to this recently which resulted in the hard disk going back. Best to check and be safe.

I find it off that it hasn't actually specified a file, just the system dir. That's very odd. Can you get the actual filename?

With regards to replacing it, first check in "C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386" for the file. That, I think, is the updated store of files and executables that Windows maintains when you apply patches. If it doesn't exist there, only then copy from the CD. Make sure that you don't fix up "System" and "System32", they're two different directories in Windows.

 

[.Wilier.]

Cheers Ben, I'll keep that in mind.

 

[phlash]

That file is one of the registry files (others in the same directory are also registry data), which you should be able to rebuild from the recovery console (I think!). I had much fun with these files when moving my OS from one drive to another...

 

[MYstIC G]

Frankly, reinstall. Mine did this and I did eventually manage to make it live but it was very "Frankenstein" style and totally unstable.