Computer will not boot

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davidje14

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Hi!

when I try to start my computer, I get the following message:
Windows cannot start because the following file is either missing or corrupted
System 32\DRIVERS\pci.sys

It then goes on to say I should try to repair using the windows xp cd. and press "r". Which I tried, I ended up at this repair counsel which was worthless.
I then tried going into safe mode and got the same message.

I think this may be a hardware problem because the same thing happened about 2mos ago. At that time, I assumed it was from a virus, so I just reformatted the disk and started from scratch. I don't want to do that again!

But , for some reason, even though I started from scatch. It always took a long time for the computer to boot up. 5-10 minutes. during the boot sequence a row of white rectangles would appear at the bottom of the screen and slowly fill in as a solid bar until finaly windows would appear. I should have taken the cue that all is not well in kansas. But noooooo! I was just happy the dam thing worked. So here I am same problem as 2 mos ago.

I read about in this forum about a person who had a very similar problem. One of the suggestions was to purchase a new hard drive and install windows on that and use the old hard drive as a slave so I can retrieve the data on it. This would be the way to go if it is a hardware problem to begin with. Can sombody here tell me from what I discribed if it is a hardware problem. It seems the computer was having problems loading data from the hardrive. Could it be in
the motherboard? Or the hardrive?

Thanx and please help
 
Well the recovery console can help. You just have to copy the pci.sys file off the disc into the Windows/system32 directory. But that might not solve your problem.

You could try to do a Repair install.
 
befere I go through with a repair install I would like to try to replace the file using the recovery counsole. I know how to get to the counsole, I just don't know what comands to use to find and install the corrupt file.

I have a 2002 oem version of windows xp. I don't remember a repair install feature on it. Would I have to purchase a newer retail version to do this?

And once again I ask, does anybody know what could cause my computer to take so long to boot up in the first place? Even after I did a complete reformatting?

Thanks for the replies
 
tried using the commands on the llink and got a "access is denied"
message.

Step #3 said I had to give an administrator password? I never had the computer set up with any passwords, so I did not enter any. Is there some kind of password I have to enter?
 
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