Win 2000: file is corrupt or missing: does not start

[OrionGazer52]

I have a Toshiba laptop and I was using it in the car connected to a power convertor yesterday. I had just put it in hibernate mood by closing the screen and when i turned it back on, the screen wouldnt show. So I manually turned off the laptop and turned it back on. On startup, I got an error message " The following file is missing or corrupt /WINNT/SYSTEM32/CONFIG/SYSTEM"

I tried to use the repair function in Windows Setup (using "r") however it requires an Emergency Boot Disk which I have not created. Are there any other options I can use to boot into Windows? Thanks a lot!

 

[Pavlyk]

I think you should format that drive

 

[TheMajor]

I think its your registry.

Start the computer by using the Windows CD-ROM or the Startup disk.
When you see the "Welcome to Setup" message, press R for "repair."
Press C to run the Recovery Console tool.
Select the installation that you want to repair.
Type the administrator password. If this is a domain controller, you need to supply the password for Directory Services Restore Mode.
Log on to the Recovery Console tool and type the following commands:
cd system32\config
ren system system.old
ren system.alt systemalt.old
Copy the backup of the System hive from either the %SystemRoot%\Repair folder or the %SystemRoot%\Repair\Regback folder if you run the Emergency Repair Disk Wizard from Windows Backup and Recovery tools.

You will need to restore the most recent copy of the System hive. Any programs that run as a service or hardware device drivers that you installed since you last ran the Emergency Repair Disk need to be re-installed.

To copy the default System hive, type the following command:

copy c:\winnt\repair\system to copy the default system hive

To copy the System hive that was backed up the last time that you ran the Emergency Repair Disk Wizard, type the following command:

copy c:\winnt\repair\regback\system

After you run these commands, type exit at the command prompt to restart your computer.

 

[OrionGazer52]

TheMajor... I followed your steps and my computer is up and running. However, none of my drivers are present. I also found an article on www.microsoft.com which tells me to bring back the system.old file into the registry however the registry cannot read that file. I get the error "This is not a valid registry key". Is there anyway to fix registry files? Thanks for your help.

 

[TheMajor]

I think you need to rename it to system.reg

 

[OrionGazer52]

I get the same error message when I try to load system.reg. Any suggestions?

 

[TheMajor]

Re-install all drivers.