Hardware Analysis Community Forums http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/ 2009-01-07T21:01:42-05:00 http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/ http://media.hardwareanalysis.com/halogo.gif text/html 2008-07-04T16:56:10-05:00 Jon Doe http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=40#539608 Thank you for the help! text/html 2008-07-03T23:13:47-05:00 Gerritt http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=20#539533 Wow, what a blast from the past!!!<br /> Jon, As long as you do not reformat or repartition your drive upon setup of the new OS, the My Documents folder and it's contents should still be there.<br /> Have you read through this 4 year old thread?<br /> If you can't understand the processes necessary to recover from this error, you may need to find a technically saavy friend, or a repair shop to take care of it for you. You'll want to make it VERY CLEAR that the DOCUMENTS on the DRIVE are extremely important to you and that you DO NOT want them to REFORMAT or REPARTITION the drive.<br /> <br /> IF the documents are that important, and you don't trust your friend or local shop, then you may request that they install an ADDITIONAL HDD and load the OS there, with the &quot;damaged&quot; drive also connected, so you can attempt a recovery from your present, then secondary drive.<br /> <br /> It can be confusing, I hope I've not added to it.<br /> <br /> Gerritt text/html 2008-07-03T07:10:39-05:00 john albrich http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=20#539465 With a corrupted filesystem, just about anything can happen.<br /> <br /> My advice (even if your filesystem wasn't corrupted) is to backup your personal documents, emails, etc. Then perform your upgrade. If nothing goes wrong, then that's great. If something goes wrong however, you still have your data on backup media.<br /> <br /> Depending on the amount of data to backup, you backup to another disk, writable CD, writable DVD, flash drive, etc. It should only take a few minutes.<br /> <br /> If needed, people here can advise you on how to backup your files.<br /> <br /> <br /> edit to add-BTW, if your XP Pro does NOT include at least SP2, then my advice would be to wait until you either get an upgrade with SP2 included, or get the SP2 or SP3 upgrade disk from Microsoft (it's free + S&amp;H. You can also download it). Then, <b>immediately</b> upgrade your new XP Pro upgraded system with the SP2 or SP3 CD. text/html 2008-07-03T02:09:15-05:00 Jon Doe http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=20#539444 I have run into the same problem of the Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \Windows\System32\Config\System <br /> You can attempt to repair blah, blah, blah. <br /> <br /> I am not very proficiant when it comes to what I have been reading. My question is, if I load Windows XP Professional on top of my Windows XP Home Edition, will I lose any of my documents out of the &quot;My Documents&quot; folder? text/html 2004-05-12T03:08:36-05:00 Tom Goldie http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=20#133901 Your idea about faulty RAM was a good one. I downloaded a freeware memory tester at <a class="ext" href="/action/r/http://hcidesign.com/memtest/download.html" target="_blank">http://hcidesign.com/memtest/download.html</a> and it showed faulty RAM. I'm ambivalent about the results: it says the RAM should be replaced, and I have 2 256MB sticks, and one of those must be bad <img src="http://media.hardwareanalysis.com/smilies/smile2.gif" width="14" height="14" border="0" alt=":-(" title=":-("> text/html 2004-05-11T19:17:38-05:00 mario grech http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=20#133778 I am having the same problem on newly built PC, this problem keeps coming every couple od days, re-format and comes up again, I think it is more a hardware problem, I was thinking the RAM. Any suggestions as this is driving me crazy. text/html 2004-05-01T08:51:11-05:00 JuSt_ tRy http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=20#130148 ernest, it seems u''ve gone ? anyways, if you are still interested in a solution let me know here, ill write a good solution methold text/html 2004-04-30T06:14:47-05:00 Tom Goldie http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=20#129824 Either I'm the luckiest guy I know or I just really screwed up royally....<br /> <br /> I was getting a &quot;windows could not start&quot; error, &quot;windows\system32\config\system&quot; missing or corrupt error. I started up the repair from the XP disk, renamed the old system file &quot;system.old&quot; and copied system from my &quot;windows\repair&quot; folder over into the \win\sys32\config\system folder. Windows XP now starts. I didn't read that tip anywhere--just a lucky guess? text/html 2004-04-15T23:05:37-05:00 Harris Walktin http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=20#125739 Ernest, do not reinstall windows without trying this first, insert the windows xp cd, and boot up into it, when you come to the menu, press R and it wil begin to repair your system, read every screen clearly, your data will stay but should fix your problem, or reboot and instantaniuosly start to tap the F5 button, right away from the second it starts, then a screenw ill come up showing you a bunch of options, choose &quot;restore last known good settings, this can work also text/html 2004-04-15T22:41:52-05:00 Tim Kitz http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=20#125735 OK, I too am getting the message that WIndows XP (home) could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \windows\system32\config\system<br /> <br /> I'm following the Microsoft article telling me how to recover a corrputed registry and following the steps also mentioned in a previous post here (listing out all the copy commands). I've booted from the XP home CD and made it through to the repair console and am attempting to make the tmp directory (md tmp...and I also tried md c:\windows\tmp) and the response is &quot;ACCESS DENIED&quot;. I also tried to do the first copy command into the tmp directory (thinking maybe it would create the folder on it's own) and I also get the response &quot;ACCESS DENIED&quot;. What is up with this access denied response? I'm pretty weak on DOS so I'm hoping someone can point out something stupid that I'm doing wrong or forgetting. Thanks in advance! text/html 2004-03-30T01:21:30-05:00 Jim Wall http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=20#119389 I know I read this late, but by any chance did a file exist named &quot;System&quot; in the windows directory?<br /> <br /> text/html 2004-03-29T04:53:03-05:00 Jimmy Hellyer http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=20#119088 I think I may know how to fix this error. If you are good a DOS, and can boot up to it, then you can do it there, but I recommend hooking your hard drive up to another computer as a slave. Then go to the C:\windows\repair folder and copy the System file from there (some os' have the file system.bak). Then go to the C:\windows\system32\config folder and rename the system file in there (if there is one) to system.old and paste the backup system file in there. (if it was named system.bak, rename it so it is just system). Then try to boot up to that hard drive on the broken machine. <br /> <br /> I was told that would fix the error, but my entire config folder was missing off my hard drive. Unfortunatly, copying the config file off another computer and pasting it on yours will not work. So I am going to be doing my annual reformating, but I was able to copy off all my important files to the other computer when I had the hard drive hooked up as a slave.<br /> <br /> Good luck! text/html 2004-02-16T01:11:03-05:00 angryhippy http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=20#104121 it is better to do it over than to lose more later, repairs are not always sure fire . <br /> <br /> Or as my daddy used to say &quot;If you don't have the time to do it right the first time, when are you gonna have the time to do it over? &lt;G&gt; text/html 2004-02-15T23:52:14-05:00 Rick Hill http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=20#104102 i went ahead and foramtted and did not waste time on the project. i know it would have been a project if i had tried the repair job. but as stated it was over in an hour or less and i had not really lost all that much. the machine i built was for the wife and kids and there was not much lost.<br /> <br /> it is better to do it over than to lose more later, repairs are not always sure fire . text/html 2004-02-15T23:08:46-05:00 angryhippy http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/20811/?o=20#104090 You know I have 2 hard drives, and a CD with the install programs for all the programs I run, on it. I reinstall my windows XP at least every 2 months. I look at it like changing the spark plugs. I just move my document files and bookmarks etc. to my second drive, then do a zero fill overnight (It takes about 8 hours for a 120gig HD). The reinstall takes about 6 hours, but the OS is always running at top speed. I also do a defrag every other day, and run my Spyware, Antivirus programs, everynight and on start up if there are new updates. If you want a rocket, don't treat it like a biplane. And make backups often. CD-RW's are cheap.