PCTech Forums

Posted: **Sun Jun 19, 2005 10:18 pm**

Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: WINDOWSSYSTEM32CONFIGSYSTEM

Hi i hope u can help well this is the error i get and when i try to sort it out via repair console i get access denied and when i check hard drive there no longer seems to be a c partition only an unknown partition, is there any way i can fix this without full reinstall if not is there a way i can try retrieve any info from lost c partition?

i have my fingers x

ta dexy

Posted: **Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:08 am**

Here is a link that is rather lengthy but should nail it down.

Gecko seems to have a handle on this.

Also check in the bios that "hard disk SMART is active." You may have a drive that is going south

Posted: **Mon Jun 20, 2005 10:04 pm**

Thanks icecube but that way is no good as my c:/windows has gone and as for smart yes it is on i have a 250 gig and have smart always on and have had no alerts at all to my hard drive going south does anyone else have any ideas please

Posted: **Tue Jun 21, 2005 4:17 am**

You mentioned that you had a 250 gig drive. Did your motherboard reconize the 250 gig or did you need to install some third party software in order to see the drive --like Ontrack disk manager. If that is the case, fdisk /mbr is something you DO NOT want to try at ALL. If the hard drive is reconzied at full value in the bios, boot with a floppy and type fdisk /mbr(there is a space between fdisk and /mbr). make sure fdisk is on the bootable floppy.

You could try a reinstall of windows to the same location on the drive c:\windows. Do not format the drive, the install will leave the other directorys alone. Your programs in your program directory will be there, but they will have to be reinstalled. If you use administrator as your logon, that folder gets toasted.

Your best bet may be to spend $40 on a 60 gig drive and do an install on that and then hook up the other drive as a slave and pull the data off.

Posted: **Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:04 pm**

Posted: **Wed Jun 22, 2005 6:36 am**

Posted: **Wed Jun 22, 2005 10:23 pm**

Posted: **Thu Jun 23, 2005 12:24 pm**

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2005 10:18 pm**

Hi i did try fixmbr with no luck so yesterday i decided to do a reinstall ( was finding it hard with just a basic 5 gig hard drive gggrrrr)

may i once again thanks for ur help and i will always use this site from now on as a source of information

tanx to all DEXY