ixl
06-28-2007, 02:24 PM
{Somehow this thread got corrupted. I was able to find the posts but they became "detached" from the thread which was somehow deleted. I have transcribed the posts manually from the database, so they are somewhat messed up in format but all the data should still be intact. --c}
4thpc
XP won't start: system file missing or corrupted-moved
My XP pro won't start and informs me that system32\config\system files missing or corrupted. The real trouble is that it will forever loop to this message line for every reboot. It ignores CD rom and floppy drive. So the original OS CD and recover floppy won't solve this problem because it won't go there and no way for me to go to BIOS now. All I can get is that message line and it loops back there no matter what I do. So ordinary recovery means won't help. I wanted to pull out the hard drive and put it onto another PC and replace new system files but was worried that may help boot the windows but other softwares will malfunction due to system registry. I want to try better means than that. Any better ideas are appreciated. Thank. p.s. this conincidently happend after I added 2GB to existing 2GB. As the 32 bit XP only recognized 2.75 GB. I don't think this is related to the OS problem but I provided this information anyway.
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pentachris
The point where you enter the appropriate keystroke to enter the BIOS occurs before you get to the point that that error message would appear. Usually it's DEL, sometimes F2, sometimes other keys, just watch the screen right as you turn on the computer. I usually begin tapping the appropriate key about once every half second immediately after powering up.
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4thpc
Thank you pentachris. I was able to get into BIOS and tried to use original OS CD to repair it. However, after I chose the drive (in my case 1: C:\windows) to repair it, the process was stuck there and simply did not do anything. This means failed. Just found out the my other PCs do not support SATA drive and they simply do not have power connection and MOBO connection for SATA. If it can't be fixed I have to reinstall XP. That sucks and I still wish this can be fixed.
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Ghost_Hacker
The XP setup does not support SATA drives out of the box. You need to load your SATA drivers during the setup process manually. However you may already have done this as you get a option to fix the XP OS on your C drive. Anyways, this links explains how: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp_on_a.htm Hope this helps :) EDIT: Is this what you see when repairing your XP OS? Microsoft Windows(R) Recovery Console The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality. Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart the computer. 1: C:\WINDOWS If so you are in the recovery console which allows for a manually repair. I would not recommend this option unless you know which files need to be replaced instead follow the info in this link: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/instxprepair1.htm Good luck :)
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4thpc
Ghost_Hacker, that's exactly what I wanted to do and what I saw. Microsoft Windows(R) Recovery Console The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality. Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart the computer. 1: C:\WINDOWS However, after I typed 1 and ran it, it simply stayed there still and did not do anything ever after two hours (I went to watched a DVD :)). I did not have a chance to proceed to the next step for anything. p.s. I had no problem when I fresh installed the XP pro. OS onto the blank SATA drive and had no problem with SP2 and update.
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Ghost_Hacker
Yes, it doesn't do anything. As I stated in my last post that option is a manually repair option it does nothing on it own. So if you leave it and come back you will see nothing but a "C" prompt. If you read the second link i sent you it will give you the instructions for doing an automated repair. Anyways good to hear you are back up and running. :)
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Paul Komski
The XP setup does not support SATA drives out of the box.I think this is dependent on the BIOS and not WinXP. When SATAs first came out the F6 option was needed for an XP setup (because such SATAs were configured for contingency reasons on a SCSI interface) but modern BIOS can usually be set to emulate IDE/PATA devices and the F6 drivers becomes a redundant issue for the NT-based OSes. I agree that a Repair Installation rather than a Repair from the Recovery Console would have been the way to go since such reboot loops usually involve a corrupt registry along with any "missing files" due to the wrong pointers being set somewhere.
----------------------------------
Ghost_Hacker
I think this is dependent on the BIOS and not WinXP. When SATAs first came out the F6 option was needed for an XP setup (because such SATAs were configured for contingency reasons on a SCSI interface) but modern BIOS can usually be set to emulate IDE/PATA devices and the F6 drivers becomes a redundant issue for the NT-based OSes. I agree that a Repair Installation rather than a Repair from the Recovery Console would have been the way to go since such reboot loops usually involve a corrupt registry along with any "missing files" due to the wrong pointers being set somewhere. No, A non- SP2 XP setup didn't have the drivers for SATA so you needed to use F6 to load them yourself. If you can emulate an IDE drive then the XP setup can access the SATA without loading SATA drivers (in some cases SATA drives even have an IDE interface as a second connection option). In either case you would need to work around the problem of the XP setup not having the drivers you need :) Anyways, the option I outline works to get your SATA drives up and running with the old XP setup no matter what drive or BIOS you are using. Hope this helps :)
----------------------------------
Paul Komski
Whether running setup as a clean or repair install it should be obvious early on whether the F6 drivers should have been installed since the drives will not be found at all at the partitioning stage if any non-native drivers were needed in the first place. Any mobo I have used that came out in the last three years or more hasn't need F6 drivers unless installing onto RAID for SATA drives whether pre or post SP2. I remember Saphalline going to great lengths explaining why and when the hardware changed on the Northbridge to allow the BIOS not only to identify SATAs as IDE but also to get closer to their maximum transfer rates, since they are after all ATA devices. The first SATA hardware was different and each new mobo of that era did things differently and thank goodness it has all become much more standardised nowadays. in some cases SATA drives even have an IDE interface as a second connection optionInteresting - do you have any reference for one of these. Do you mean there is both an IDE and a SATA interface on the drives or that the same ATA drive can be distributed with a different connection and firmware.
----------------------------------
Ghost_Hacker
Whether running setup as a clean or repair install it should be obvious early on whether the F6 drivers should have been installed since the drives will not be found at all at the partitioning stage if any non-native drivers were needed in the first place. Any mobo I have used that came out in the last three years or more hasn't need F6 drivers unless installing onto RAID for SATA drives whether pre or post SP2. I remember Saphalline going to great lengths explaining why and when the hardware changed on the Northbridge to allow the BIOS not only to identify SATAs as IDE but also to get closer to their maximum transfer rates, since they are after all ATA devices. The first SATA hardware was different and each new mobo of that era did things differently and thank goodness it has all become much more standardised nowadays. Yes, you are correct he does mention he got to the repair console which is not possible if the setup program doesn't see the drive. This is why I looked more closly at just what the prompt he was getting said. ( I am a bit rusty at reading these post :)) Thanks for giving me more info on SATA. :)
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Ghost_Hacker
.... Interesting - do you have any reference for one of these. Do you mean there is both an IDE and a SATA interface on the drives or that the same ATA drive can be distributed with a different connection and firmware. There is both an SATA connection and a IDE one for the same drive. I will look to see if I can find a page with stats of one. EDIT Here is a link to a adapter. I recall seeing SATA hard drives that had a SATA connection and an adapter to IDE ( EDIT: I was able to find a network storage enclosure that came with adapters for SATA to IDE but not one of those old drives..oh well). http://www.cwol.com/serial-ata/ide-to-sata-converter.htm Since the first version of SATA was not that much better then PATA drives out at the time these adapters worked fine. I am not sure if they make adapters for the newer versions of SATA.
4thpc
XP won't start: system file missing or corrupted-moved
My XP pro won't start and informs me that system32\config\system files missing or corrupted. The real trouble is that it will forever loop to this message line for every reboot. It ignores CD rom and floppy drive. So the original OS CD and recover floppy won't solve this problem because it won't go there and no way for me to go to BIOS now. All I can get is that message line and it loops back there no matter what I do. So ordinary recovery means won't help. I wanted to pull out the hard drive and put it onto another PC and replace new system files but was worried that may help boot the windows but other softwares will malfunction due to system registry. I want to try better means than that. Any better ideas are appreciated. Thank. p.s. this conincidently happend after I added 2GB to existing 2GB. As the 32 bit XP only recognized 2.75 GB. I don't think this is related to the OS problem but I provided this information anyway.
----------------------------------
pentachris
The point where you enter the appropriate keystroke to enter the BIOS occurs before you get to the point that that error message would appear. Usually it's DEL, sometimes F2, sometimes other keys, just watch the screen right as you turn on the computer. I usually begin tapping the appropriate key about once every half second immediately after powering up.
----------------------------------
4thpc
Thank you pentachris. I was able to get into BIOS and tried to use original OS CD to repair it. However, after I chose the drive (in my case 1: C:\windows) to repair it, the process was stuck there and simply did not do anything. This means failed. Just found out the my other PCs do not support SATA drive and they simply do not have power connection and MOBO connection for SATA. If it can't be fixed I have to reinstall XP. That sucks and I still wish this can be fixed.
----------------------------------
Ghost_Hacker
The XP setup does not support SATA drives out of the box. You need to load your SATA drivers during the setup process manually. However you may already have done this as you get a option to fix the XP OS on your C drive. Anyways, this links explains how: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp_on_a.htm Hope this helps :) EDIT: Is this what you see when repairing your XP OS? Microsoft Windows(R) Recovery Console The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality. Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart the computer. 1: C:\WINDOWS If so you are in the recovery console which allows for a manually repair. I would not recommend this option unless you know which files need to be replaced instead follow the info in this link: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/instxprepair1.htm Good luck :)
----------------------------------
4thpc
Ghost_Hacker, that's exactly what I wanted to do and what I saw. Microsoft Windows(R) Recovery Console The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality. Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart the computer. 1: C:\WINDOWS However, after I typed 1 and ran it, it simply stayed there still and did not do anything ever after two hours (I went to watched a DVD :)). I did not have a chance to proceed to the next step for anything. p.s. I had no problem when I fresh installed the XP pro. OS onto the blank SATA drive and had no problem with SP2 and update.
----------------------------------
Ghost_Hacker
Yes, it doesn't do anything. As I stated in my last post that option is a manually repair option it does nothing on it own. So if you leave it and come back you will see nothing but a "C" prompt. If you read the second link i sent you it will give you the instructions for doing an automated repair. Anyways good to hear you are back up and running. :)
----------------------------------
Paul Komski
The XP setup does not support SATA drives out of the box.I think this is dependent on the BIOS and not WinXP. When SATAs first came out the F6 option was needed for an XP setup (because such SATAs were configured for contingency reasons on a SCSI interface) but modern BIOS can usually be set to emulate IDE/PATA devices and the F6 drivers becomes a redundant issue for the NT-based OSes. I agree that a Repair Installation rather than a Repair from the Recovery Console would have been the way to go since such reboot loops usually involve a corrupt registry along with any "missing files" due to the wrong pointers being set somewhere.
----------------------------------
Ghost_Hacker
I think this is dependent on the BIOS and not WinXP. When SATAs first came out the F6 option was needed for an XP setup (because such SATAs were configured for contingency reasons on a SCSI interface) but modern BIOS can usually be set to emulate IDE/PATA devices and the F6 drivers becomes a redundant issue for the NT-based OSes. I agree that a Repair Installation rather than a Repair from the Recovery Console would have been the way to go since such reboot loops usually involve a corrupt registry along with any "missing files" due to the wrong pointers being set somewhere. No, A non- SP2 XP setup didn't have the drivers for SATA so you needed to use F6 to load them yourself. If you can emulate an IDE drive then the XP setup can access the SATA without loading SATA drivers (in some cases SATA drives even have an IDE interface as a second connection option). In either case you would need to work around the problem of the XP setup not having the drivers you need :) Anyways, the option I outline works to get your SATA drives up and running with the old XP setup no matter what drive or BIOS you are using. Hope this helps :)
----------------------------------
Paul Komski
Whether running setup as a clean or repair install it should be obvious early on whether the F6 drivers should have been installed since the drives will not be found at all at the partitioning stage if any non-native drivers were needed in the first place. Any mobo I have used that came out in the last three years or more hasn't need F6 drivers unless installing onto RAID for SATA drives whether pre or post SP2. I remember Saphalline going to great lengths explaining why and when the hardware changed on the Northbridge to allow the BIOS not only to identify SATAs as IDE but also to get closer to their maximum transfer rates, since they are after all ATA devices. The first SATA hardware was different and each new mobo of that era did things differently and thank goodness it has all become much more standardised nowadays. in some cases SATA drives even have an IDE interface as a second connection optionInteresting - do you have any reference for one of these. Do you mean there is both an IDE and a SATA interface on the drives or that the same ATA drive can be distributed with a different connection and firmware.
----------------------------------
Ghost_Hacker
Whether running setup as a clean or repair install it should be obvious early on whether the F6 drivers should have been installed since the drives will not be found at all at the partitioning stage if any non-native drivers were needed in the first place. Any mobo I have used that came out in the last three years or more hasn't need F6 drivers unless installing onto RAID for SATA drives whether pre or post SP2. I remember Saphalline going to great lengths explaining why and when the hardware changed on the Northbridge to allow the BIOS not only to identify SATAs as IDE but also to get closer to their maximum transfer rates, since they are after all ATA devices. The first SATA hardware was different and each new mobo of that era did things differently and thank goodness it has all become much more standardised nowadays. Yes, you are correct he does mention he got to the repair console which is not possible if the setup program doesn't see the drive. This is why I looked more closly at just what the prompt he was getting said. ( I am a bit rusty at reading these post :)) Thanks for giving me more info on SATA. :)
----------------------------------
Ghost_Hacker
.... Interesting - do you have any reference for one of these. Do you mean there is both an IDE and a SATA interface on the drives or that the same ATA drive can be distributed with a different connection and firmware. There is both an SATA connection and a IDE one for the same drive. I will look to see if I can find a page with stats of one. EDIT Here is a link to a adapter. I recall seeing SATA hard drives that had a SATA connection and an adapter to IDE ( EDIT: I was able to find a network storage enclosure that came with adapters for SATA to IDE but not one of those old drives..oh well). http://www.cwol.com/serial-ata/ide-to-sata-converter.htm Since the first version of SATA was not that much better then PATA drives out at the time these adapters worked fine. I am not sure if they make adapters for the newer versions of SATA.