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    Compaq Mini wont boot

    Discussion in 'HP' started by stuartadair, Dec 15, 2009.

  1. stuartadair

    stuartadair Newbie

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    Hello all,

    I've got a Compaq Mini Netbook with a hard drive problem. On boot I'm getting "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt \windows\system32\config\system"

    I want to boot the netbook with an XP boot disk and from there I can try and recover things. My problem is getting as far as C:

    No CD drive so I've put the following files on a memory stick...
    • Boot.ini
    • NTLDR
    • NTDETECT.COM

    When I put the stick in and boot the netbook I can choose the boot device, select memory stick but am getting the message that no boot files exist on the drive.

    Any ideas ?

    Stu
     
    stuartadair, Dec 15, 2009
    #1
  2. ReneSDK

    ReneSDK Notebook Consultant

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    Shouldn't this have been in the Compaq forum, and not Compal?
     
    ReneSDK, Dec 16, 2009
    #2
  3. dusty9838

    dusty9838 Newbie

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    I think you are posting in the wrong forum :D But I'll post my 2 cents worth anyway...

    I think it's wise to purchase an external DVDROM drive if you own a Mini (you can find good deals on them online if you look using pricewatch.com) if you have an external drive you can simply re-install or run repair with Windows XP using the CD.

    You can also make your thumbdrive bootable and dump the contents of the XP CD on it and re-install or run the repair feature from it that way.

    The error you are getting looks like a corrupted registry for windows XP and you can probably fix it by simply running the repair instead of reinstalling the entire OS again.
     
    dusty9838, Dec 16, 2009
    #3
  4. stuartadair

    stuartadair Newbie

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    Come on guys, Compal sounds pretty close to Compaq :)

    How do I make a pen drive bootable ?

    stu
     
    stuartadair, Dec 16, 2009
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