PCTech Forums

Yes i rebooted my computer this morning and it came up and said that windows could not start b/c of a coorupt or missing file.
\windows\system32\config\system
then it says to fix this problem put in your windows Xp cd and restart then press R to repair. The only problem is that i dont have that disk just a recovery cd that wont work. Is there anyway i can fix this problem with out reformatting and restoring my hardrive

if the file is small enough to fit onto a floppy drive, you could boot from your XP cd, go to a recovery console, and manually copy the file into the correct location. (you'll have to have a baisic knowlege of DOS to do this though)

Let us know how things work out!

I have one quick suggestion that might work.
Click on start > run > now type “cmd” (without the quotes) now type “sfc/scannow” (without the quotes again) this will force windows to check all system files on the drive and replace any that are corrupt
Other than that, we will have to venture into “exploring” that restore CD that you have to figure out where and how to evoke the repair program.