hi guys i turned on my machine this morning to find a lovely message on the screen "windows\system32\config\system" is corrupt or missing. it tells me 2 do the repair install but im worried if i do that that i might loose all my software an games and settings and other things like that?? also is there a nother way of fixing this problem other than the repair install... im running a backup hdd as my c: and my main hdd as the d:. let me kno guys!!
This may not be much help but I remember that with win98 you could reinstall windows and all it did was replace the existing windows files with the ones on the disc and leave all the other program files alone, so as long as you didn’t format it before installing it was fine, I’m not totally sure if XP work the same way but I would guess that it does.
this is often just a corrupt boot.ini if you can boot off the cd and get into recovery console you can edit it from there, if you've not got a backup of a good workin boot.ini, (and lets face it that's just not that likley) you can usually get away with copying one from an other system providied that you have similar setups IDE hard disks etc windows installed on C drive etc etc
where can i find the "boot.ini" file coz im running a xp pro copy on my spare hdd and so i can copy the file over but where can i find it?? plz help
Do a repair install. It only replaces the windows system files. I have done this many of times, Your games and what not will be safe.
boot.ini is a hidden file on the root of your C drive, you'll need to go to folder options and enable the view hidden and sytem files thing to see it should look something like [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
i found a "boot.ini.backup." in the hdd which has buggered up but the search results aint showed me the ini file on the working backup hdd?? im not sure what to do with this file???? but maybe i could replace it with the damaged file but im not sure where it goes.... i went to the recovery console and tryed the"exit" thing but nothing came of it im jus thinkin of doin a repair install as it sounds the more simple option but would i have to reinstall my drivers and stuff coz i cant b arsed to install drivers. i really dont wanna do the reinstall but it looks like i have to do it. so what should i do with the "boot.ini.backup" file??
You can edit the original boot.ini by following these instructions. Think its got a sample version of what it should look like as well.
go into recovery console and type in fixmbr this will create a new boot record on your hd thus making a new boot.ini.
ok guys i have fixed it by the recovery console but then i found that i would have to reinstall a few programs as windows went back to the frist installed state.
you can eddit it in the 'system configeration utility' just go *start* run * and type in 'msconfig' then hit enter then you can just click the tab 'boot.ini' and its there
Yeah but the problem is he couldnt boot into Windows due to that file.......so there is no *start* menu to click on.
The only thing I can add is: Have you overclocked your system? I ask this because I find that past a certain overclock, I get that exact same error message. Reducing the overclock fixes it. I get weird things in XP with certain overclocks, too (like the whole theme being changed to the standard Windows Classic, and Windows not letting me change it back)
