Resolved missing or corrupt system folder or config

this error always confuses me. why does this happen ??? i have a lot of clients that seem to get this missing or corrupt folder but yet in 8 years of my xp pro use i personally have never had it. knock on wood thank goodness.

i have tired everything the web says to try and nothing has ever worked. most of my clients are xp home so some of the ability that pro gives home doesnt. only thing i have ever been able to do with this error after running the repair function and it still errors is to rebuild back to factory defaults.

if anyone can explain why this error happens i would appreciate it and if theres a full proof way to fix without rebuilding that would be nice also. like i said tho i have tried everything from m.s. site and other sites on these errors to no avail.

 

Posting the exact error message would be helpful but for the moment I'll assume it is something like:

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

Did you have System Restore enabled when this problem occurred? If so, you can try the methods outlined in the sticky post at the top of the XP section where you posted. Click here to go directly to it. FWIW, of the methods mentioned in that link, I much prefer the BartPE boot method.

If System Restore wasn't enabled, you could try the method outlined by Kelly Theriot HERE.

FYI, Registry corruption is often not fixable by running a Repair install and sometimes requires a full clean install.

A word to the wise, it is prudent to have a daily Registry backup to easily fix situations like this. Running ERUNT daily (in Startups Folder) is an excellent way to do that and takes only a few seconds.

 

have done all of it. safe mode command prompt wont work because of the folder missing so cant do the system restore function from dos command prompt. i put erunt on all xp machine but again cant get to the command prompt to do these command. cant do the recovery console cuz its xp home and only pro has that ability.

almost 100 percent of the time the repair can fix boot volumne error and the boot.ini problems but not the missing system folder.

 

Here's another guide on resolving that error: http://www.aade.com/XPhint/XPrecovery.htm
That's the one I use

 

You can get to the Recovery Console by booting with a Windows XP setup CD. Just press "R" when first asked after the initial file copy process. Otherwise, if you have no setup CD, you can use the set of floppies that are freely available from MS.

Like I said earlier, I much prefer doing the work using a BartPE live system CD. Much easier.

I should mention, now you can get a Windows Vista boot CD that allows access to the NTFS files. That's another alternative to keep in mind.

 

You can also download This XP Recovery Console ISO, and burn it to a new disc, then boot from it

 

That's the best news yet! Just follow any of the previous ways that gets you to the command prompt and migrate to the directory where ERUNT stores the backup files. Get resident in the folder that predates the problem and run the ERDNT command. That will restore the directory to a version that existed before the problem occurred.

The good part of that is, you won't lose any personal settings and all installed software will still work normally.

 

I must correct my last post. I am guilty of having a bad memory when posting things but I always remember correctly when I do them myself.

I tried the operation that I posted and immediately saw that I had to depart from it to succeed.

The stumbling point was when I was refused permission to enter the directory where the ERUNT files were located. You'll get an "Access denied" error if you placed them anywhere except within the Windows directory.. I also remembered that you can't run the ERDNT.EXE command from the Recovery Console but instead must copy the files using command line procedure. You cannot run the ERDNT command from a Recovery Console prompt.

Here's how to get around the "Access Denied" error.
While in the RC, run the following command:

ren X:\windows\system32\config\system systemren (where X is the system drive you logged onto)

You'll get no confirmation but if you get no error message, you can assume the command executed as planned.

Then you must reboot and return to the RC. You'll now be able to have full access to all files on your drive.

Now that you are allowed into the directory where the ERUNT files are stored (and all others), you can enter your chosen dated directory and run a copy command on any directory hive therein. You cannot run the ERDNT command, as I wrongly stated earlier. You must do the copying manually using standard dos commands. An example would be, after getting resident in the properly dated ERDNT folder:

copy system X:\windows\system32\config\ (where X = the system logged onto)

I apologize for any trouble that my over-simplification may have caused. I must say, it's easier to do things than to tell how to do them.

The foregoing will make it easy to understand why I now use a BartPE boot CD to do the same job and leave the Recovery Console kludge alone. No access problem - no command line syntax to remember - simply rename the old and drag and drop the new, all from a familiar GUI. My kind of operation!

 

i didnt want to say anything about running erunt the way you first posted cuz i knew it wouldnt work. cool that there is a get around and i will try that the next time. have already printed out your reply on that.

i have barts cd but have never used it. what can i do with the bart cd when the system folder is corrupt or missing ???

 

The beauty of the BartPE CD is that it will allow full access to the files on a NTFS system. Files such as the Registry hives and also any hives backed up by the System Restore feature of XP can be easily manipulated this way.

The Registry hives are located in the C:\Windows\System32\Config\ directory and the System Restore files that contain the backup of the Registry hives are located in the C:\System Volume Information\ directory.

The process would be to rename the existing hives and copy/paste any replacements you choose and try booting the system with them. You may select replacements from any of several locations. Use either the System Restore hives or the ERUNT generated ones as first choice since they are most current. If those aren't available, use any that are in the original location that have a .bak extension. If those don't work properly, the last choice would be the ones in the C:\Windows\Repair\ folder. Those are the oldest and least desirable but if nothing else is available, they may allow you to restore bootability and retrieve data, if nothing else.

There are other possibilities for using the BartPE CD in making repairs or retrieving user data, depending on what kind of problem you have. Replacing missing or corrupt system files is easy with the access that the CD provides. I wouldn't be without one, nor would I run without ERUNT and daily incremental drive images backed up on separate media. I use Acronis True Image. It takes less than five minutes for the daily image.

I put the available Acronis plug-in on my BartPE so it allows running True Image from the boot CD.

Good luck in your efforts.

 

i will start playing with that cd and see what it can do.

now my question is why does this folder end up like this on some systems ??? like i said i have used xp almost from day one and knock on wood its never happened to me. is this error caused by some thing the client is doing ??? this particular machine that caused my writing on this is now up and running again and it was a very clean machine. not one bug and i run 4 different checkers for bugs. there were no chkdsk folders indicating any hard drive problems.

so what causes this folder to go bad ???

 

Your guess would be as good as anyone else's. There are so many variables involved that we cannot possibly know why any given system fails while others seem to be bullet proof.

I must say, like you, I have been running XP for nearly eight years now and have never had any major problems. I attribute it to being prepared so well that nothing would dare go wrong that I couldn't easily fix. It's almost disappointing to have such a robust system.

Some of the problems may be caused by improper shut-downs or user abuse of hardware and poor maintenance. Others are simply a gift of God. I can appreciate how difficult it must be for MS to build a system that accommodates the wide variety of 3rd party software that is available.

 

sorta what i thought but like you am glad i have never had that big a problem with my xp. maybe win7 will have less of these types of problems.

thanks for you help here. going to close the call.

 

It's been a couple of weeks and I have had an opportunity to test ERUNT in a BartPE boot session. I'm happy to report that it works just like it does in Windows. Just double-click the ERDNT.EXE file contained in the ERUNT backup for the day you want restored. It runs automatically without any copy/paste that I thought might be needed.

I recommend both ERUNT and BartPE highly. Both are free tools that nobody should be without, regardless of what other backup system they use.

 

surferdude2

is the ultimate boot cd the same as bartpe ???

 

No, it's created and based the same way but it contains some tools that are not found on the BartPE disk. I like it for certain problem solving situations so I have it in addition to the bartPE. Either one is good but I prefer the BartCD since it has a plug-in available that accommodates my Acronis True Image software.

I'm running off the Ultimate CD right now and using the Firefox browser it provides. I did that so I could answer any questions you may have about it.

 

okay so where is a good site to download bartpe ??? do you have a preference as to the site you used ???

 

I got mine HERE. Before doing the build, read up on what plug-ins are available and get the ones that you like and place them where directed so they'll be included on your CD. The links to plug-ins are on that site page so read carefully.

It would save a lot of trouble and grief if we could merely download an ISO and burn the CD but it's a matter of propriatary files that MS doesn't want to make readily available unless you can prove you paid for them.