Computer Help

IB Adrian · #1 (**permalink**) 10-22-2009, 11:29 PM

Ok,
So on Tuesday I went to start up my laptop, and I turned it on and I come back after a couple of minutes to see that it now has a black screen with a couple of options.
After letting it reboot I use the startup options and disable the auto reboot see that in its startup procedure after going through the Windows XP (SP 2 btw) startup screen it comes to a blue screen briefly which informs me the following

Code:

STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\STSTEM
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance

Now apparently I need an XP CD to repair this issue - I do not have one (computer came with XP installed).
According to this link I can run a patch from my USB drive - however given I can't boot from USB drive, I don't know how to do it?
Am I SOL?
What options do I have?
Thanks!

jake00 · #2 (**permalink**) 10-22-2009, 11:58 PM

easiest would be to use an xp cd, surely you know someone with one

ddrumman2004 · #3 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 08:32 AM

Did the laptop come with a recovery CD if not a Windows CD?

IB Adrian · #4 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 10:40 AM

It did not

Virto · #5 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 12:04 PM

Even if it came with a recovery cd, the actual Windows disc image is probably compressed, and the recovery utility is needed to unpack it. Since it didn't come with one, I assume there is a second partition on the hard disk titled "recovery" or something similar, and that during POST there's a "press F-something" for recovery manager prompt.

The good thing is that you own your liscense to use Windows, and the physical media is irrelevent. If you don't have anyone that can provide you a copy, see if someone can torrent it for you and burn the image.

Have you tried to boot the system in safe mode? The Windows recovery console is bleh. The root of the problem remains though...what caused the file or table to go missing or be corrupted?

IB Adrian · #6 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Virto

Even if it came with a recovery cd, the actual Windows disc image is probably compressed, and the recovery utility is needed to unpack it. Since it didn't come with one, I assume there is a second partition on the hard disk titled "recovery" or something similar, and that during POST there's a "press F-something" for recovery manager prompt.

I have tried all of the "F" keys to no avail.

Quote:

Have you tried to boot the system in safe mode? The Windows recovery console is bleh. The root of the problem remains though...what caused the file or table to go missing or be corrupted?

I don't know what caused the file or table to go missing or be corrupt.
I was using the computer doing some photoshop work one evening, shut down my computer, next evening go to fire it up and it tells me that it is having this error

I have tried booting the system in "safe" mode - no dice either.

modar · #7 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 02:04 PM

sounds like the hard drive died.

Virto · #8 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by modar

sounds like the hard drive died.

Possibly, but it really doesn't take much for the file system to go straight to hell. Honestly, because it's hanging on this one registry entry, we don't know if there are any others beyond it. It's possible we could patch this one up and then find another in its place.

Western Digital makes a pretty good drive scanning program that they ship with their drives. It'll work on any ATA or SATA hard disk, if you can find a copy of it. I imagine it's available on their website. It's not as reliable as a hardware-level disk checker, but it also won't take 12 hours to do the job.

My first choice would be to use an XP cd that you beg/borrow/download and try to replace the file using the recovery console. There's the chance that the file you need is locked away in a CAB, which makes things much more difficult. If you can't manage that way, you can pull the drive out and slave it off another PC running XP. You may be able to move a good copy of that file from drive to drive.

If you're one of the lucky folks that still have a 1.44Mb floppy drive and can get to a command prompt, format a: /u /s to make a bootable disk, and put the missing file on it...provided it fits. There are also boot disk utilities you can download for windows PCs, if you have access to a working one.

stormyrider · #9 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 07:51 PM

Mine did this and I ended up reinstalling the XP operating system to correct it. Seems some of the OS files became corrupted possibly from a power surge.

IB Adrian · #10 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Virto

My first choice would be to use an XP cd that you beg/borrow/download and try to replace the file using the recovery console. There's the chance that the file you need is locked away in a CAB, which makes things much more difficult. If you can't manage that way, you can pull the drive out and slave it off another PC running XP. You may be able to move a good copy of that file from drive to drive.

Thanks to a helpful FTE member I will have access to a CD

Quote:

If you're one of the lucky folks that still have a 1.44Mb floppy drive and can get to a command prompt, format a: /u /s to make a bootable disk, and put the missing file on it...provided it fits. There are also boot disk utilities you can download for windows PCs, if you have access to a working one.

Sadly my laptop doesn't have a floppy drive

Thanks for all the advice!

ctubutis · #11 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 10:12 PM

I work in the IT department of the company I work for and just today heard about this
happening to a handful of 'doze users over the past few days. I do Linux stuff and don't
have much concern over the ailings of 'doze so I didn't pay much attention, I'm not even
sure what they (the 'doze guys) have been doing to deal with the problem BUT I remember
talk about booting from an Ultimate Boot CD ([0] and trying some things involving the
System Restore console.

I can ask on Monday if it's still a problem and you haven't found another way of
recovering.

It's a Windows STOP error, and apparently something pretty major is wrong with the
Registry.

Because this is happening fairly suddenly to a number of people (apparently not just to
people with whom I work) this leads me to believe it's the result of buggy software pushed
out by Microsoft fairly recently. Do you keep your laptop patched & updated via Microsoft
Update?

[0] Ultimate Boot CD - Overview

donjamer · #12 (**permalink**) 10-23-2009, 11:27 PM

Adrian, You can follow the Microsoft outline for recovering from a corrupt registry..

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting

If you have access to an external enclosure you can put the drive in there and then scan it for viruses, copy the necessary files in the microsoft KB article, using another PC..

I have a different error on a laptop that requires the same procedure..

IB Adrian · #13 (**permalink**) 10-27-2009, 12:02 PM

I just thought I would update, the XP CD I got a hold of was one that could only be used with an OEM computer (which was different to the OEM for my computer and therefore would not work)

What I have done therefore was use an external hard drive connector. I removed the hard drive from my laptop, connected it up via the USB hard drive connector another XP PC (btw my Hard Drive is fine)
I backed up the following files, and then replaced them with those from the restore directory:

system
software
sam
security
default

Will see how I go (and update in case someone else experiences the same issue) when I plug the hard drive back in this evening!

tojoski · #14 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 11:32 PM

Typically when I see this error, it means the hard drive is in the process of failing.

I suggest using your external connector and backing up any important data, then try scanning it with a bootable utility called SpinRite.

GRC|Hard drive data recovery software

If the drive is failing, it can identify the problem areas and many times relocate the bits to a usable area of the disk.

This is just a temporary fix though, you would still need to replace the drive.

How old is your laptop?

IB Adrian · #15 (**permalink**) 10-29-2009, 12:02 AM

Hey Joe - my laptop is probably a bit over 3 years old now, its not necessarily the laptop I am concerned about (although it has been really great Laptop for me - a BENQ Joybook),
The main concern was all of the software (a lot of very expensive Engineering programs!) and files on it.

The replacing of the system files was not successful.
I have backed up all of the files on the hard drive - and am in the market for a new laptop!