Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS

**Anilrgowda** · 15-Feb-2007, 03:45 AM

Question: I will be as brief as I can, and thanks in advance for your help with this.

1) Sony VAIO w/XP MultiMedia Home Edition
2) Upgraded to XP Professional over a year ago - this has worked perfectly with no problems
3) All MS updates including SP2 were installed as released - these were all up to date
4) PC was protected by Norton Internet Security 2006, which also was always kept up to date

Problem happened when I installed two NIS updates in October. After installation, NIS suggested a reboot (as it usually does). Then, upon reboot, I got the following message: "Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM".

I then booted from my Winternals ERD Commander CD with the intent of copying my data files to another partition. To my chagrin, ERD Commander did not see the XP installation, nor did it see any partitions to recover any data from.

So not only will XP not boot into any mode whatever, my partition table and possibly file system have become corrupted as well.

I've done a lot of research on this, and am pretty sure my registry was corrupted by the NIS updates gone awry.

At any rate, this PC has thousands of data files I MUST RECOVER as most of this data is irreplaceable. Ideally, I would like to not only recover the data, but the OS to the state it was in prior to the crash, but if I have to do a reinstall, I can live with that just so long as I can recover my data.

So my request boils down to this:

1) What is the safest way to recover my partition table/file system info?
2) What is the best method of recovering the OS to its operational state before the crash?

For those of you who will take the time to respond to this problem, thank you very much.

**Anilrgowda** · 15-Feb-2007, 03:45 AM

When I have that error this has solved it every time for me: How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting

I haven't used ERD Commander but I understand the idea. The only other option I would have would be to make a BartPE disk and boot from it and burn your files to a CD or copy over the network if it can see it. Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD It also includes a program called TestDisk that I have used to restore corrupt partitions. TestDisk - CGSecurity

15-Feb-2007, 03:45 AM	#1 (permalink)
Anilrgowda Administrator Posts: 18,704 Join Date: Jan 2006 Rep Power: 10 IM:	Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS Question: I will be as brief as I can, and thanks in advance for your help with this. 1) Sony VAIO w/XP MultiMedia Home Edition 2) Upgraded to XP Professional over a year ago - this has worked perfectly with no problems 3) All MS updates including SP2 were installed as released - these were all up to date 4) PC was protected by Norton Internet Security 2006, which also was always kept up to date Problem happened when I installed two NIS updates in October. After installation, NIS suggested a reboot (as it usually does). Then, upon reboot, I got the following message: "Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM". I then booted from my Winternals ERD Commander CD with the intent of copying my data files to another partition. To my chagrin, ERD Commander did not see the XP installation, nor did it see any partitions to recover any data from. So not only will XP not boot into any mode whatever, my partition table and possibly file system have become corrupted as well. I've done a lot of research on this, and am pretty sure my registry was corrupted by the NIS updates gone awry. At any rate, this PC has thousands of data files I MUST RECOVER as most of this data is irreplaceable. Ideally, I would like to not only recover the data, but the OS to the state it was in prior to the crash, but if I have to do a reinstall, I can live with that just so long as I can recover my data. So my request boils down to this: 1) What is the safest way to recover my partition table/file system info? 2) What is the best method of recovering the OS to its operational state before the crash? For those of you who will take the time to respond to this problem, thank you very much.

15-Feb-2007, 03:45 AM	#2 (permalink)
Anilrgowda Administrator Posts: 18,704 Join Date: Jan 2006 Rep Power: 10 IM:	Re: Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WIN When I have that error this has solved it every time for me: How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting I haven't used ERD Commander but I understand the idea. The only other option I would have would be to make a BartPE disk and boot from it and burn your files to a CD or copy over the network if it can see it. Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD It also includes a program called TestDisk that I have used to restore corrupt partitions. TestDisk - CGSecurity

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