[Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt]

Han an olld Dell Dimension T450 with Windows 2000 SP4. 80 gig hard drive connected to and ATA 133 Ultra controller card. Was working great until recently it failed to startup. The following message displayed after post and before windows was started:

"W2K could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINNT\System32\config\SYSTEMced "

I have tried to boot from a floppy but unable to do so. Appears that the floppy is kaput or is not recognized by the system. I can boot to the Windows CD; however, cannot access the repair console. I tried to reinstall windows but was advised that there was no disk available.

I have did the Microsoft thing about the hives file but no change.

Have tried many things including buying and installing a new Promise ATA 133 Ultra TX2 controller, but the results are always the same, failure to boot to Windows 2000 and the same message as reported above.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Don

 

w2k missing file

Arie,

Thanks for your information. I did do the steps (that I could without a floppy) but since I cannot boot to dos cannot complete everything suggested.
I can boot to the W2K Cd and the OS loads; however, cannot access the repair functions or cannot install W2K.

It is beginning to look like a dead end. I have a lot of data on the hard drives that I would like very much to recover, even if I can't get the operating system to boot.

I copied a boot floppy to a cd, but of course that did not work since I don't know how to make the cd bootable.

Thanks anyway for all you tried.

 

Windows 2000 disk fix

Go to start/run and type "chkdsk /f ". It will do the chkdsk program at start up. It fixes corrupt sectors and replaces system files. But you probably need to find out why it ever got messed up.

 

thanks

In any case since I am unable to boot to windows I cannot access the start/run function. I cannot boot to a floppy either, so looks like I will just try to recover some of the data that I have on the hard drive by using another computer.

Thanks anyway.