Windows XP Home Labtop Dead due to missing registry files

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by LufianGuy, Sep 17, 2011.

  1. LufianGuy

    LufianGuy Regular member

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    I haven't been on in a very long time and wish everyone the best.

    So lets get down to the problem:

    I come home and my dad says the labtop isn't working. Old dell labtop (think 2005) that has a windows product key sticker that says dell on its bottom.

    I turn it on, windows seems to do fine but the login screen is always black and I had to turn the computer off.

    So I tried to boot into safe mode and got this blue screen message:
    "STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
    The registry cannot load the hive (file):
    \Systemroot\system32\config\SOFTWARE
    or its log or alternate.
    It is corrupt, absent, or not writable

    Beginning dump of physical memory,"

    So I used a dell xp home sp3 cd (don't have the original cd) to get to windows recovery console. I ran chkdsk /r on Wednesday hoping to fix the problem.

    While chkdsk /r was running the harddrive started to make clicking noises and progress went down from 75% to 50% while it was running.

    When it finished today (Saturday) it was 75% complete and said something about 1 or more unrecoverable errors on the disk.

    I exited the console and tried to boot windows normally, and it is telling me it is missing another registry file and tells me to do a repair.

    I tried to go into safe mode after that, it stays on screen (doesn't go to a blue) and tells me:
    "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
    \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

    you can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup
    using the original Setup CD-ROM.
    Select "r" at the 1st screen to start repair."

    Questions:
    1. I just tried to do chkdsk /r to fix the problem, should I try again with chkdsk /p or /f?
    (chkdsk /r implies /p,/f, so I'm afraid this won't work)

    2. Would a clean install of windows fix this issue?

    3. Is there a better way to fix this issue than a clean install or is there something I have overlooked?

    Thanks!

    Steps I might need to take:
    1. Run the HDD Manufacturers diagnostic utility (Will have to find out who made the HDD and how to make a bootable cd for it):
    http://discussions.virtualdr.com/showthread.php?t=206126
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2011
    LufianGuy, Sep 17, 2011
    #1
  2. attar

    attar Senior member

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    Last edited: Sep 17, 2011
    attar, Sep 17, 2011
    #2
  3. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    i think your hard drive has developed bad sectors.
     
    ddp, Sep 18, 2011
    #3

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