Windows wont start

missing or corrupt windows\system32\confi​g\system.

Anyone have a clue how to fix this? I have done some research and have read that it could be a driver issue. I haven't added anything to the computer but last night my wife popped in a usb zip drive, didn't think it was doing anything and pulled it back out befor it had finished doing whatever it was doing. She put it back in and after a minute or so it had loaded its driver and the drive was accessible. Right now im in the recovery console running "chkdsk /r" as I read it had worked for someone else on some computer forum.

Any help would be appreciated.

Repair install of the OS using original install disk. I'm not an expert so there may be an easier way. But that file is kinda important and I don't think you will fix it any other way.

Hi. If you have important files on your computer, and you are unsure of your computer trouble-shooting skills, I would seriously think about taking it a store or having a tech-savvy friend do this for you.

From you description, I don't think you have a serious malfunction, and that all your files are very likely fine. This being the case, I would see about connecting your hard drive to another computer as a slave drive. When the computer boots up, your drive will (should) show up in My Computer. You should then copy (not move) all your important files to the working computer's hard drive. This will create a back up of your most important files.

After shutting down the working computer, move your hard drive back to your own computer. You should then try reinstalling your OS, as Eddarr suggests, but be careful not to choose any format option when doing so.

Good Luck!
~Dom

Try starting Windows in Safe Mode.

Reboot your computer and after the POST routine and memory check runs, but before Windows starts up; the press and hold down the F8 key; you will then be guided through starting in Safe Mode. If you choose the Last Good Configuration option; boot in Safe Mode, then reboot and start in normal mode you should be fine.

Was your anti-virus up to date? A little surprise could have been lurking on her USB Drive.

FedkaTheConvict wrote in post #5750609
Try starting Windows in Safe Mode.

Good idea.

if chkdsk /r doesnt fix it and the hard drive isnt making any weird noises, run the Windows XP CD and run a repair.

If you can get it to start in safe mode, and "last known good configuration" doesn't work, start in safe mode again, go to your start menu> Accessories> System Tools > System Restore.

If that doesn't work, you need a repair installation.

Chkdsk /r didnt work. It ran to 37% complete then messaged some sectors not recoverable. How do I do a repair installation without loosing the personal info. A guy at work told me to pull the drive, buy a 250 or 500 gig drive, install it, do a clean install of windows, add all my hardware drivers and software that I have copy's of. After thats all done put my crashed drive in as a slave and drag and drop my personal files onto the new drive. Once I have that all done format the slave drive and use for backup or storage. What do you guys think?

if the drive is spewing up errors, its best recovered then trashed imho

ewwww, 37% completion on chkdsk is not good. it all depends on how important the data is to you. you have a few options:

1. buy this: http://www.download.co​m …3000-2248_4-10309797.html or

2. send your drive out to a data recovery specialist. most charge $75 to analyze the drive (which is non-refundable btw) and will charge you per MB of recovered data. this is all done in a clean room. so if even if your drive does not spin up, they can open it up and extract the data for you.

GOOD LUCK!

-MasterChief- wrote in post #5754759
you have a few options:

1. buy this: http://www.download.co​m …3000-2248_4-10309797.html or

I actually had a hard drive go corrupt (not anything I didn't have backups of, but sure saved me time to recover instead of load backups from DVD's), and I was about 2 seconds away from buying Easy Recovery, and I did a wikipedia search on a whim and found this, and I got 100% of my data back, for free:

http://www.cgsecurity.​org/wiki/TestDisk

Read carefully.

^^NIce! thanks for the link!

I got pissed and gave up. Took it to a guy that was highly recommended by my sister in law. He plugged my desktop into his system. Looked at my hard drive and scanned it for errors. He said the drive looked fine mechanically. Something in the OS got fried but all my personal files were there. Hes gonna copy up all my personal files, format my 160g drive, reload windows XP pro, load all my drivers, load some of the software I have on disk and put my personal files back on the drive for $80. Hes gonna install a 500Gb WD Sata 7200 drive also for another $85.
How should I handle the second Drive? I was thinking about partitioning it to 200Gb to Mirror my C drive weekly. 200Gb for extra storage that would be backed up to DVD (clients photos etc) and 100 Gb for Photoshop scratch disk. Does that sound like a good plan?