C:\windows\system32\config\system missing or corrupt
May 11th, 2009 by dipankar
Problem:
You turn on your computer one day and find an error message in a black screen that says:
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
C:\windows\system32\config\system
Solution:
You can repair this file by starting windows setup using the original setup CD-Rom. Select “r” at the first screen to start repair.
This process will only work if you have System Restore turned on. By default it is set to turned on. So if you were not changed it manually to set it off, this process will works properly.
What you are about to do is basically a minor System Restore via the Recovery Console. I say minor because you’re only going to copy part of the registry, not the whole thing. Since you are copying over a registry backup to be used you may loose some program(s) or their settings, it all depends on when the last Restore Point for System Restore was created. If some programs don’t work it’s really as simple as reinstalling them.
The text in Bold Red will be what you type and the black text will what the system outputs or what is put there by the system.
Here the steps:
C:\Windows>CD C:\system~1\_resto~1
C:\system~1\_resto~1\>dir
After you enter the DIR command and hit enter you will get a list of folders like such rp1, rp2, rp3, rp4, etc. etc. The “rp” part of the folder name denoting it’s a Restore Point.
What you’ll want to do is find the 2nd highest numbered folder in that list. So, for instance, if it listed rp1 through rp12 you’ll want the rp11 folder. I’ll use rp11 for the rest of this little fix just to keep things simple but substitute rp11 for whatever folder is the 2nd highest in the list on your pc.
Now follow the follwing commands:
C:\system~1\_resto~1>cd rp11
C:\system~1\_resto~1\rp11>cd snapshot
C:\system~1\_resto~1\rp11\snapshot>copy _registry_machine_system c:\windows\system32\config\system
Overwrite system [y,n]: y
1 file copied
C:\system~1\_resto~1\rp11\snapshot>exit
After typing “exit” and pressing “enter” on the keyboard please remove your Windows XP CD from the CD Drive and your computer will restart, hopefully into a working machine. If by some chance this did not fix your issue you can either go through this option again and try a different restore point or continue with the other options.
after login to your operating system, it is better to perform a check disk by chkdsk /r command from command promt.
Start->Run->cmd
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>cd\
C:\>chkdsk /r