XP Can't Repair itself??

JeffNY · 19th January 2009

My girlfriend has a Dell Inspiron 2200 notebook. Over the last year or so it has been getting slower and slower and slower.....taking upto 5 minuets to get a web browser open.

Anyway, the other night she got this error:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jeff810095/IMG_1911.JPG

Of course Dell did not include a XP disk or repair disk.....idiotic (this is the last Dell she buys).

But I did find a XP CD to use to try and "repair" this. But I get to this screen....
http://home.earthlink.net/~jeff810095/IMG_1912.JPG

.......and nothing happens! What I am supposed to fix Windows myself? Why can't it REPAIR the Windows installation on the notebook? I thought that was why I was pressing "R"??

Anyone have any suggestions as to what to do next?

Thanks,
Jeff (Mac user....walk me thru step by step if you can)

fletch711 · 19th January 2009

Jeff,

Before using the recovery console have you first tried to boot into Safe Mode? Or Even the Safe Mode with Command Prompt?

To do that: press f8 after the POST diagnostics screen when the computer is booting.

If you can get to a command line in Safe mode you could restore to a previous save...which I think is better than doing the recovery.

If you can boot to Safe Mode, at your command prompt type the following:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

JeffNY · 19th January 2009

Ok, just tried it....

If I select Safe Mode with Command Prompt i end up with the same "file is missing or corrupt" error for that \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

...it then tells me again I can attempt to repair by starting up Windows Setup "using original Setup CD-ROM"....

Can I do a full Windows re-install? I got a message somewhere saying that may not be a good idea and lead to problems....

JeffNY · 19th January 2009

I also just tried to startup in regular "Safe Mode"....got the same error message

**PeteC** · 19th January 2009

It can be confusing - the first 'R' takes you to the Recovery Console, the second to the Repair function .....

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...ps/doug92.mspx

As you cannot boot into Safe Mode and run System Restore as suggested above a Repair install is another option. If you are asked for a licence key you must use the one for the Dell.

fletch711 · 19th January 2009

I would reinstall as only a last resort. At the prompt from your picture you should have several options. To get a list type, "Help".

Here is a link to what each command in the Recovery Console can do:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_rec.htm

I'm leaning toward FXMBR It worked for me with an identical error in the past.
I hope that helps.

If it works and you can boot. Backup anything that you can and do a clean reinstall of Windows.

JeffNY · 19th January 2009

Thanks Pete.....just tried that. But after the license agreement i select the system on the hard drive and press "r" like the instructions say and nothing happens....restarting AGAIN from the CD to try again....

Could MicroSoft have made this anymore confusing?

JeffNY · 19th January 2009

There is no place to select REPAIR >>AFTER<< the license agreement. And if I select R for REPAIR (that is the exact word they use on the bottom of the screen) before the license agreement I get that other "Recovery" screen that just gives me the C: prompt!!!

eeeeeeeeeeeeee! I do appreciate the help......but the instructions on that web page do no not work.

Oh, and if I do proceed after the License agreement I get that warning about installing another OS on the same partition....it's either do a new full install or not. No option to "repair" is there. Despite what the web page above says.

**PeteC** · 19th January 2009

Sounds like a corrupted registry - I should have paid more attention to your first screenshot

This is what you are after .....

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting

Quote:

Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

JeffNY · 19th January 2009

Thanks Pete. The "Guided Help" file is an exe file? Am I supposed to run that on the machine that's down? hummm....wonder if I can download that on my old PowerBook here and put it on a flash drive and run it from there?

And if I can't get "Guided Help" to run I am supposed to type all that stuff in?? eeeeee

Is there any 3rd party software that can do what needs to be done here? ....there is a half page of typing here that I must type EXACTLY.....it really amazes me there is not a repair utility on the XP CD-ROM!

==========
PS I see this ad above
http://windowshelp.net/windows-xp-help/?s=g
.....would this software work? Would you guys recommend it? It can't be free but I don't see a price on it....??

Evan Omo · 20th January 2009

Hi JeffNY. In addition to whats been said on this thread, have you tried pressing F8 on startup and selecting Last Known Good Configuration? Does anything happen? Hopefully you will be able to get the system back up and running.

**wildfire** · 20th January 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffNY

Thanks Pete. The "Guided Help" file is an exe file? Am I supposed to run that on the machine that's down? hummm....wonder if I can download that on my old PowerBook here and put it on a flash drive and run it from there?

The guided help is likely to give the same instructions as that on the website. Your best bet would be to print out that webpage.

Quote:

And if I can't get "Guided Help" to run I am supposed to type all that stuff in?? eeeeee

Read the instructions carefully... Particulary

Quote:

If you have access to another computer, to save time, you can copy the text in step five, and then create a text file called "Regcopy1.txt" (for example). To use this file, run the following command when you start in Recovery Console: batch regcopy1.txt
....

If you can use another computer to create a DOS txt file then copy and paste will do the job and save you some typing.

Quote:

.....would this software work? Would you guys recommend it? It can't be free but I don't see a price on it....??

With a system that fails to boot to windows this software is no good.

Try Evan's instructions first though, it won't do any harm.

If you do get the system booted I'd check the hard drive for errors, a failing hard drive is one cause (not the only one) for this error.

JeffNY · 20th January 2009

Thanks Evan, I tried F8 and "Last Known Good Configuration".... I still get the error above. Sooo...I will have to work on this more tomorrow. Thanks everyone for the help...

Evan Omo · 20th January 2009

Then it looks like you may have to boot from the Windows XP CD and use the recovery console to repair the computer which has already been stated. Here's something that hasn't been said yet. Boot into the recovery console, type the following command and press enter, chkdsk /r. Let the process run and let us know if check disk found any corrupted windows files.

**wildfire** · 20th January 2009

Evan,

I'd advise waiting until the MS procedures have been done before attempting this, if the HD is corrupted then running chkdsk in the HD's current state could make the situation worse.