Help! Corrupted registry!

Hi everyone,

I've been a lurker around here for a while, but the info has been really useful, and actually guided me in buying this computer a little over 3 years ago. Now though, it's giving me trouble and I'd really appreciate some help, if anyone can!

I recently rebooted my Dell Inspiron 6000, to be greeted by a giant blue screen saying:

Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate

Doing some research, I happened upon this suggested, Microsoft Fix. I procured myself a HOME XP cd, booted, and used the recovery console, but the fix told me to copy c:\windows\repair\system , and this directory did not exist. System, software files are stored in the repair folder but they exist as .BAK files.

Now, XP came installed on the laptop, and is, I think an OEM-version. Is there anyway to open up those BAK files and use them? Or is there some workaround for OEM-installed computers?

I would be eternally grateful for your assistance

 

C:\WINDOWS\repair is the folder
system (no extension) is the file.

So, you are copying
C:\WINDOWS\repair\system (the file no extension)
to
c:\windows\system32\config\

or do you mean the folder
C:\WINDOWS\repair
does not exist?

There should not be any *.bak files in that directory, though you did create some in a different directory when you typed
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak

(should have been created in
c:\windows\tmp\system.bak

It sounds like you are having some command line typing problems

First, before you did the above, did you even try rebooting into the advanced boot menu (tap f8 while putting) and choosing Last Known Good Configuration?

Really, all Last Known Good Configuration does is copy the last working registry hive files (default, sam, security, software, system) from

C:\WINDOWS\repair
to
c:\windows\system32\config\

That's why you try Last KNown Good Configuration first...and then usually if that fails, the MS fix doesn't work either, since they are proposing you do it manually, instead of automatically.

You CAN do it another way, though, but it requires that you be able to access the drive with a different system (by dropping it as a slave in a second computer or using a linux or windows PE boot disk and copying old restore points into the proper place.

 

The last time I faced a corrupted registry the end result was just wiping windows and doing a fresh install I know this is tedious but it worked well for me.

Yeah there are a few ways to get windows back up like the last known configuration as well as the recovery console, but I find that sometimes that doesn't exactly work like you hope, for me doing this only resulted in a fair number of random BSOD which got on my last nerve.

 

I would try a system restore and see if that get the job done like Evolution suggest,before doing a fresh install.

 

How to restore the operating system to a previous state in Windows XP:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084

 

I use ERUNT (free software). It does a backup of the registry automatically on startup. I don't use System Restore at all. I never know exactly what I'm going to get with it, but with ERUNT registry backups, I know I have a fresh copy of my registry every morning when I turn on the computer. This is something you might consider in future.

If all else fails, you may as well do a full XP reinstallation. I would suggest keeping your own data and other files on a separate partition. That way, these aren't affected if your Windows installation should not be recoverable for any reason.

 

yes, erunt is great--if you had it installed before the problem

It's not gonna do him any good now.

 

Hi guys,

Thanks for the quick responses!

I've found a workaround.. partially... Whereas SYSTEM only existed as SYSTEM.BAK in my REPAIR folder, SOFTWARE was indeed there. Since that was the hive that was reported as corrupted, I did as the microsoft fix suggested: deleted the original and copied the repair version into the system32\config folder. Rebooted, got a copy of the SOFTWARE version from a repair point folder, and copied that back into the config folder...

I held my breath and restarted, and behold, it booted! However, the system was extremely, EXTREMELY slow. The CPU is constantly maxing out to 100%, and its usually either services.exe or reg.exe hogging most of that.

Furthermore, I tried to then revert to a system restore point as indicated in the Fix, but when I press 'Next' in system restore, nothing happens!

Should I run a registry cleaning program like Reg Supreme? Should I go back and copy the SYSTEM and SECURITY and other hives from the repair folder?

Once again, eternally grateful for your help.

 

no, instead go to system restore and get a complete restore point from earlier--what you have essentially done is partially restored your system, but they are mismatched.

If you can start, you should be able to get an entire system restore point

 

Hmmm, I've tried several restore points. From what I could gather, the registry file i grabbed up manually was from Aug 22nd, and I've tried the restore points for 21, 19 and 17, but still the same problem... I click on 'Next' and nothing happens.....

 

Bootup in safe mode and try it.

 

Hi Reezin,

Yah, I thought of that as well and tried it, and had the exact same problem

I think, what I will try and do next is boot up the recovery console again and copy ALL the hives (SYSTEM, SOFTWARE, etc) into the current folder and see if that works.

Wish me luck!

 

okay this is what you do =)

Make sure you boot from cd

Place your XP cd inside your cd player
allow it boot up the windows installer
okay after you reach the install point agree
its going to show you your current drive highlight it and click r
that way it will install the all the windows files without deleting your own personal files

*note it may seem that your installing windows over again but your not*

 

Yay! It worked, problem solved, and puter works good as new.

For any future victims who wander into this problem, you apparently can't just partially restore ONE of the five hives, as that causes the problems I had mentioned above (slow boot up, and incapacitated system restore). So, I went in, deleted all the 5 hive files from system32\config\ and replaced them all with one from my system volume information folder. Then I was able to go back into windows and use system restore to my leisure And it worked!

Problem Resolved. Thanks for all your help everyone.