Serious Problem

[jacfalcon]

Serious as in my WHOLE computer is mesed up!

I was just doing my regualr thing, running programs and stuff, and I had installed a few which needed reboot, but clicked reboot later. So finnally i wanted to use some of the programs, so I rebooted. First it loaded the very first part where it has the Run Setup F8, then it said DELL (what I have) then it started the windows XP loading screen, but shortly after that, a Blue full screen apears, with a font that scares people who know its a basic computer error saying:
Missing File: "/systemroot/system32/config/SOFTWARE"
And something about contacting technical support (so I did) then a message saying:
"Begginging dump of memory.
Dumping complete."
Something close to that

 

[jacfalcon]

Someone told me that I should back up everything, and reformat my computer... but that kinda takes a long time, expecially when there's about 40 Gigs on here...

 

[jacfalcon]

I NEED HELP!

 

[junglemike]

Appears that you installed something bad, or inappropriate for your system.
This is what you need to do:
When windows starts, press F8, than choose "Safe Mode", and if it doesn't work, choose "Last known good configuraton"
If in either of these 2 options you manage to boot up, uninstall/delete the stuff that you installed b4 the problem.

 

[yoshiemaster]

i've had that happen to me before, i never took it seriously. i'd just restart and be back to normal again.

 

[MrCoffee]

load up in safe mode and restore to your most recent restore point.

one of you registry hives is corrupt, restoring will replace it with a backup version.

if for some reason you cannot enter safe mode, then boot from your XP cd and perform a repair installation (note, press R the second time your are prompted to, NOT the first time).

 

[jacfalcon]

It wont let me load to safe mode, it glitches before that.

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

Does it throw the error before giving the option of booting in safe mode, or WHILE booting in safe mode? To boot in safe mode, you hit F8 BEFORE windows starts to load.

 

[MrCoffee]

do you have an XP installation cd? If so then try the repair install, it should leave all your files and programs intact but hopefully fix the corruption of your regisrty hive.

1) Boot the computer using the XP CD. You may need to change the boot order in the system BIOS so the CD boots before the hard drive. Check your system documentation for steps to access the BIOS and change the boot order.

2) When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the options below

This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
   Windows XP to run on your computer:

   To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

   To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

   To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

3) Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.
To setup Windows XP now and Repair Install , press ENTER. do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R", (you Do Not want to load Recovery Console). I repeat, do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R".

4) Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows installations.

5) Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the repair. If Repair is not one of the options, END setup.

6) Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot. Do not press any key to boot from CD when the message appears. Setup will continue as if it were doing a clean install, but your applications and settings will remain intact.

Source

 

[jacfalcon]

No, I'm gonna reformat, cause a lot of people have looked at my comp, and said there was some... bad for my computer type stuff, and it would just be convenient to reformat.