| adamreece |
| (regular) |
| Thu Dec 07 2006 04:24 PM |
Windows XP Won't Start!!! Please Help
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Pc has been working fine then my wife turned it on this morning to be greeted with a black screen saying:
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or currupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
no matter what I press on the keyboard the pc re-boots & I get the error message again!! what do I do guys????
Please help...
| BurrWalnut |
| (Chippendaler) |
| Thu Dec 07 2006 06:29 PM |
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Re: Windows XP Won't Start!!! Please Help
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I'm afraid it looks as though the registry is corrupted. You really need a Windows CD or a program like ERD Commander.
Have a look here http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545
| adamreece |
| (regular) |
| Thu Dec 07 2006 06:33 PM |
Re: Windows XP Won't Start!!! Please Help
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I don't think i have a cd, can i buy one fron somewhere?
| BurrWalnut |
| (Chippendaler) |
| Thu Dec 07 2006 06:47 PM |
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Re: Windows XP Won't Start!!! Please Help
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Depending upon your PC, self-built or Windows pre-installed, you may (stress may) be able to use a friend's CD to run the Recovery Console.
Equally, if you can't get it sorted out you may have a recovery partition on the PC which will enable you to set it back to factory settings. You will lose everything but if that isn't too catastrophic, it may be the route to take.
Do you have backups of your important data, e.g. mail, letters, photographs, music and the like?
| adamreece |
| (regular) |
| Thu Dec 07 2006 07:03 PM |
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Re: Windows XP Won't Start!!! Please Help
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It's a packard bell Windows pre-installed bought pc. Option is very drastic as I dont have copies of everything!! Is the boot cd from another bought pc likely to work?
| BurrWalnut |
| (Chippendaler) |
| Thu Dec 07 2006 07:11 PM |
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Re: Windows XP Won't Start!!! Please Help
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A recovery CD from a different manufacturer is unlikely to work. A purchased one will probably work. You lose nothing by trying any Windows CD you can get your hands on.
If you have access to another PC you could 'hang' your hard disk on it as a slave and extract your important data.
| adamreece |
| (regular) |
| Fri Dec 08 2006 09:15 PM |
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Re: Windows XP Won't Start!!! Please Help
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How do I 'Hang' my hard disk on another pc?
| adamreece |
| (regular) |
| Fri Dec 08 2006 09:19 PM |
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Re: Windows XP Won't Start!!! Please Help
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I have purchased one of these, worth a try I suppose!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...s_promot_widget
| BurrWalnut |
| (Chippendaler) |
| Sat Dec 09 2006 07:50 AM |
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Re: Windows XP Won't Start!!! Please Help
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Quote:
How do I 'Hang' my hard disk on another pc?
1. Open the case, remove the HDD. There may be screws or a sliding clip that holds it in place.
2. Set the little jumper on the back of the drive to 'slave' before putting it in the other PC.
3. Open the other PC and connect it to the (probable) trailing ribbon connector (about 2 inches wide) and connect one of the spare 4-pin power cables. You won't have to fit it in the case just balance it on something non-metallic, e.g. a shoe box.
4. Boot up and Windows will find the drive and install it.
5. Open 2 explorer windows and drag/drop your files from the old PC to the new.
6. When you have copied them all, switch off and remove the old HDD.
7. Now boot up the 'other' PC and make further copies of the files you have just copied, to say, DVDs, CDs or some other external storage. This will give you the added security of a second copy of your files in case the 'other' PC misbehaves.
| BurrWalnut |
| (Chippendaler) |
| Sat Dec 09 2006 08:21 AM |
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Re: Windows XP Won't Start!!! Please Help
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Quote:
I have purchased one of these, worth a try I suppose!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...s_promot_widget
It sounds too good to be true!
I hope it's not pirated software. When you receive it post back here with the program's name.
| adamreece |
| (regular) |
| Sat Dec 09 2006 08:18 PM |
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Re: Windows XP Won't Start!!! Please Help
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Found all my original documentation & discs for the Packard bell today. The only relevant one was a 'Packard Bell Software library ' cd rom.I tried to load this but nothing happened & I received the same error message I can only assume thatit did not have XP on it.
Not received the other disc yet!!