I can help you fix that problem email me for the Complete Details IF and only if you still have this problem now. I just recovered manually (there’s no other way) from the same error!
Just one question if you email me back how did you see the error. I had to fucking record my screen with a camera just to see it!!!!??????
Hi, my computer just started with this problem today. I have no idea why it happened or how to fix it. I would like to email you so that you can tell me how to fix it but i dont know how to. I dont see a link for your email address. Please let me know soon, thanks.
I’m having this problem as well with a Dell 6400 with a RAID array of SCSI disks - I’ve replaced one disk that died in the array, it has rebuilt correctly, but is still giving this error. How do I fix it manually? Would restoring the registry from tape backup help? I’m having the day from hell - any and all help much appreciated!
Can anyone plzzzzzz help me ive just got this problem yesterday. I have two local disks on my computer but only one hard drive inside. Does anyone know how to fix it without formatting my drive. I would just copy over to second local disk but its only 7GB and the others 43GB. Im on windows xp. plz if anyone knows how to fix it plzz help.
Have also had the “systemroot\system32\config\software” on the blue screen of death, and been told that it is corrupt, am in the final year of degree and am desperate to solve it! To make matters worse its on my laptop and i cant take the hard drive out, anyone any suggestions????
When I originally posted this rather short scream of anguish, I never expected it to get quite so much attention. It seems that this page is now a major gathering point for people who have problems with \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
For the record, it seems that this message appears either because the hard disk has become corrupt (e.g. bad sectors containing the SOFTWARE registry keys) or because, as in my case, there are problems with the hard disk controller. Replacing the disk or the controller might solve your problems - adding a second disk and installing Windows on that might allow you to rescue any data from the problem disk.
If this is not possible, you _might_ be able to install a second version of Windows on the _same_ disk as the problem copy, and then rescue your data that way (just boot off the Windows installation disk and tell it to install a fresh copy of Windows), but in any case you’d be best off getting a new disk drive as soon as you can because chances are your old one is on the way out and you’re going to lose vital files sooner or later.
had the same error and was looking for advice after I took a ****ing picture with my digicam so I could read the engraving of the tombstone. I received this error after installing a brandnew Hitachi 200GB drive. I am now on the third ****ing installation and it started screwing up after configuring different users under XP. Selected a screensaver (marquee) and the machine rebooted and came back as a ghost with the blue screen of death flash (which I captured with the cam so I could actually read it) continously rebooting - no option would work. Tried to repair XP w/o reformatting, but it doesn’t work. I am thinking it may have something to do due to XP limiting the harddrive addressing to 136GB w/o SP1.
I will switch to Linux SUSE 9.x but I still have some software that I need under windows for now until I converted to Linux and can give MS the mental middlefinger.
I was hoping I could replace the files.
I am thinking putting the bigger h/d into a newer motherboard and use the <136 GB drive there to my older motherboard hoping that will work. We’ll see unless somebody has a better recipe for one of MS’ many OS crimes.
Go Linux and support open platforms is the lesson here for myself anyway.
good luck and as little dataloss to you as possible.
I am having the same problem with an added twist, I have SATA HD’s and Win2K Pro doesn’t have the driver for them. Luckily, I kept my disks with all those drivers.
In either case, this file was corrupt (and still is), and the only way I could get into windows was to perform the OS installation again, but chose the “R” repair option at first, and then select “C” for console. This will bring you into “DOS”. From there, you select which OS you’d like to fix (it gives you a couple choices and most likely, you’ll just end up picking #1 since there may not be any others), and then it’ll ask you for the administrator password.
Once you get this, you will have access to your computer through “DOS” (if you’re not good with DOS, I guess you’re SOL). You then have to make your way to the above mentioned directory (systemroot\system32\config) and you will see the “software” file. This is the corrupted file. Rename it to software.cor or software.bad or something stupid like that. Make a copy of your backup software.old or whatever your backup software file is, and then rename the backup to “software”.
this should boot you into windows, but that’s as far as it’ll go. You still have to enter in the username and password when windows boots up, and once you get in, all you’ll have (or all I had) was a blue screen, no start menu, no icons, nothing. I had to CTRL-ALT-DEL to pop-up my task manager to run “cmd” (command prompt) and then using DOS commands in command prompt, run various program (like my web browser)
I had this problem too and yes I needed to take a digital picture of the screen so that I could read the error message.
1. I booted to a CD of the OS. Selected the console repair option.
2. I could get to the corrupt files but the .sav version was corrupt too.
3. I could not get to my wife’s important data files because they were under NTFS. (I just found a great reason to never use NTFS.)
4. I ran CHKDSK -R and it found and fixed some disk problems.
5. I ran FIXBOOT and it did something. (I have no idea what).
6. After all this, I still got the blue screen on boot.
7. I reinstalled the OS right on top of the old OS.
8. Before I did anything else I downloaded the Maxtor diagnostic and the Dell diagnostic utilities. I ran both on the entire system without any problems reported.
9. I completed the OS upgrade (Windows Update) and now I’m in the process of reinstalling all the software.
10. Because all data was kept in separate directories, I was able to recover all important data.
11. Today, I will make a repair disk for the PC and I will backup all important data to writable CD or to the zip disk.
All in all, a complete pain in the ass with no permanent repurcussions.
There are two ways to get back up and running. The easy way which doesn’t always work, and then there is the hard way.
Easy Way — Note that this doesn’t always work.
When you are booting your system, press the F8 key during the start of the bootup sequence, meaning after it does the Power On Self Test.
Once you press the F8 key, you will be taken to a Menu. Select “Boot Using Last Known Good Configuration”.
It will now attempt to load Windows XP using a past set of configuration files.
If that doesn’t work, there is the next step….the hard way.
Hard Way
Boot your system with the Windows XP Install CD, let the system boot into the Setup. Once in the Setup, choose to run the Recovery Console.
You will now be presented with a screen similar to good old DOS.
First, we will recover the System Hive.
Now, type in the following commands with pressing Enter after each line.
Okay…so I hit this last night, of course, right when I needed to VPN into work and make some changes. Fortunately I had a dual boot machine set up and could still get into linux. I could even use the linux partition to grab files off of the WindowsXP partition. But you cannot make changes to the Windows partition using linux if the Windows box is installed on NTFS. Otherwise I could have made repairs and just restarted.
Since this occurred I’ve decided, any system that is totally dependent on a single file for all of it’s configuration should never be considered stable!
My computer went down yesterday and i cant get anywhere with it.It says I have lost systemroot/system32/config/software it wont let me go on safe mode or anything can someone plz help me.thank u
To prevent your computer to reboot without any info with this error, you must deactivate the check box in Start->Control Panel->System->Enhanced Options->Start and Recovery->configuration->Automatically reboot
(sorry if it’s not like in your english version of XP, but my version is in spanish)
After that, when you get an error you could see the error. When I get this error, I left the computer restarting continuously and, after 1 hour!, the computer booted.
you dont have to take a picture of the error message. when its loading go into advanced setup and select disable automatic restart on system failure. that way the blue screen will just stay there and you have to manually shutdown/restart
I have got this error but the way that mine is different is that when I try to run the recovery console from the Windows XP disk, it tells me that there isn’t a hard drive recognisable.
Can anyone shed any light on this, or am I going to have to purchase a 2nd hard drive in order to try and recover my files from the damaged hard drive?
STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writeable.
For the moment I’m putting the installation cd in and rebooting hitting until either the ‘one time boot from cd’ menu comes up or it just boots straight up.
Not very scientific, but it lets you in so that you can try replacing the SOFTWARE file with its back-up (I haven’t tried yet, but I just backed up my HD, so here goes).
Could this have to do with size of registry?
mine is close to 32MB… for “software”
I am now applying all service packs and security patches for Win2003 server.
Oddly enough if i let the memory dump finish and remove all USB devices my system starts. This problem started after I installed some unsigned drivers for my canon s500 digital elph camera !!BEWARE!!
hey peeps . . i am havin trouble with the systemroot\system32\config\software .. i get the blue screen of death on my 80gig hdd. and i cant start my pc . i am using a 9gig hdd now . but i cant recover most of my data . i had tried to start my pc with the windows xp cd but i get an error msg somthin like i890 or somthin like that . can someone help me plsss ..
I was reading all of the comments and the one by George Kopf is extremely helpful except everytime I type in the line:
copy C:\windows\system32\config\system C:\windows\tmp\system.bak
it says -
The system cannot find the file specified. And I don’t know where to go from here. I actually replaced my Software file which is what it says was corrupt but now I can’t replace my system file to allow the computer to start up. Any help would be great, otherwise I’ll keep looking around.
I’m having the same problem for my DELL Desktop.
It keeps on stating:
STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writeable.
Dumping memory to disk: [in counting]
I found a website that helps me, but I can not start my Recovery Console. How do I get my HD to read my drive when it boots so that I can load Win XP?
I have the STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writeable.
error message when i start my computer and found a microsoft website that works for windows xp, http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545
but i have windows 2000. i made an emergency backup disk also but dont know how to use it, please help.
I have had the same problem and I too had to reboot 600 times to encrypt what the blue screen stated. After typing in the systemroot/system32 etc directory I saw this thread. I am afraid I will loose the majority of my school data. I don’t have the windows boot disk anymore, I lost it when I moved a month or so a go. The easy way doesnt work for me, is there a possibility to get it fixed by booting from a WINDOWS XP cd that isnt yours?
For Some Reason, whenever I try to type in “md tmp” in Recovery Mode from the guide posted by Marco, it will only let me type in one letter. All the other letters do not appear.
Have the same problem with Dell 8300 since last night. Run diagnostics, all ok. Attempt to follow MS and Dell instructions for replacing SOFTWARE file via the recover console, but DOS copy command doesn’t work on this file (it does on all the other files mentioned in system/system32/config). No attributes preventing it as far as I can see. How can I copy and/or rename this file? Any suggestions for preventing (major) data loss are very welcome!
The computer in question is in the bar/club I use and beer was being drunk as we worked at the problem. I went over what we did last night with the guy who had the problem.
Let me just run over how we arrived at the solution again.
On checking, the bios (f3 on boot up)was set up to go to hard disk, then the cdrom for boot up.
Obviously with a windows/registry problem there was a lock up as it tried the hard disk first. The boot order was changed in the bios to access a boot from the windows/recovery disk the guy had.
Basically we ended up at the good old “C:\Windows” prompt.
I then ran “CHKDSK”
The report showed bad clusters.
Out of OLD habit I then ran “CHKDSK /f” as opposed to the /r option. (I have since check the help file in XP and noticed the /F option is not even listed. If I remember right in the old DOS days the /f option included the /r option)
Remember it can take a little while to run. Watch the % completed.
Once completed I executed a “DIR” and we could see the .tmp files listed.CHKDSK saves info to these files.
The CD was removed and a reboot executed and XP booted without problem.
Result = 2 free pints for me and several raises of the glasses to my old tutors. It just goes to prove I WAS paying attention during classes!
I don’t promise a cure all but it was a simple fix in this case. Good luck all.
Can’t you just do a re-install of windows xp?? I’m on chkdsk now and I think I’ll try a reinstall before going through the motions described in the microsoft kb article.
I had this classic problem and tried Pete’s 2-pint “CHKDSK /r” cure from “C:\Windows”. Praise the Lord, cause it worked, and this morning I’m no longer the poor sucker that lost all my work. BTW, the “CHKDSK” took a couple hours to run. I finally gave up and went to bed. In the morning, I looked at the results of the CHKDSK command, typed “exit” at the “C:\Windows” prompt, chose to “Reboot Normally”, and voila! This is going to be a good Friday. Thanks All!
I had a similar error systemroot/system32/config/software on my TOSHIBA notebook yesterday and desperately required assistance on retrieving files from my HD. Well, the good news is that I manages to retrieve all my files.
K I figured out a way to fix this.
You install another windows onto the drive. You change the permissions of the original winnt folder. Then in the winnt folder, there is a folder called repair. Copy the software file and place it into winnt/system32/config folder and voila your problem is solved. Uninstall the duplicate windows, and restart your comp. Also change the permissions back to the orginal. Some software might not work but just reinstall and everything is fine. Nothing lost, and your a hero to your collegues.
Same error - corrupt or missing SOFTWARE hive of the registry. (W2K) NTFS volume
Needed to rerun install disk -> console admin password -> chkdsk (no /f option only /p or /r which calls /p but attempts recovery) -> no joy.
Luckily this happened earlier this year & I had a copy of the partition before conversion to NTFS thanks to linux and PARTIMAGE -> replaced my root windows partition (software & important data on other partitions) and reinstalled software - fix up only took 5 hours versus 2 days last time (replaced whole hard drive) DFI AD70-SR KT266A probably its the USB 1.1 controllers didn’t use them much initially but with as usb modem machine crashed irregularly but spectacularly…
So… MAKE BACKUPS - not sure if simply replacing broken hives would have been enough as who knows what other files got ruined - PS why is the software hive sssssoooooo vulnerable in windows???
I managed to keep my computer from restarting when the problem arises….the blue screen reads: “STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): /SystemRoot/System32/Config/SOFTWARE or its log or alternate. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable. Beginning dump of physical memory. Physical memory dump complete. Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance
Hi,
I managed to keep my computer from restarting when the problem arises….the blue screen reads: “STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): /SystemRoot/System32/Config/SOFTWARE or its log or alternate. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable. Beginning dump of physical memory. Physical memory dump complete. Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance
Sup guys. I had same problem on IBM laptop. To solve the problem I inserted disk into other laptop as secondary drive and ran scandisk on it with all options turned on. When running scandisk it generated a log which described problem as bad cluster in file config\software and that the bad clusters has been fixed. I then rebooted pc with harddisk in affected pc and WOIILAAA the shit problem was gone
I have the same problem i started up my comp and it comes to a black screen saying /SystemRoot/System32/Config/SOFTWARE is corrupt or missing
Press ‘R’ to repair, you have to put in a set up disk … i dont have it, is there some site i can dowload it from? ( *picks up bat and stares at comp menacingly…)
Hello, I’ve ben having the system32/config/system error on an old pc of mine, an AMD K6 with 128mb of RAM and a 5gb HD. I’ve tried reinstalling windows, I’ve tried r for recovery console but it didn’t work. Would I be able to install Linux on a pc with this problem from DOS, and if so, how?
i have been having same SystemRoot\ System32\ Config\ SOFTWARE is corrupt. i just replaced this file with Systemroot\repair\Software.
it works
cheersssssssss
I have a blue screen that reads: “STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): /SystemRoot/System32/Config/SOFTWARE or its log or alternate. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable. Beginning dump of physical memory. Physical memory dump complete. Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance
I tried the Microsoft resolution but it did not work for me a the \config\software file is corrupted or possibly the disk area its resident in has a fault.
Also I have taken all the data off of this failed hdd of my laptop, by using a device I bought back in the summer for backing up photo’s. Mate who got it for me bought it on ebuyer for about £25 excluding the internal hdd.
Attacthed my faulty HDD to it yesterday, and copied all the files I could to a 300gb MAXTOR backup device I have. The only one that would not copy was the /config/software file. So hence my reasoning with the above. I think my only alternative is the resolutions posted by these people, and will try them later.
Mar 21st, 2006 at 10:27 pm
May 19th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Oct 4th, 2006 at 9:21 am
If that fails its time for a new HDD for my laptop - has been making clicking noises lately anyway.
The question I would like to know is what exactly is the \software file and what does it do - and can one from my other laptop be copied onto it - or is it perticular to its indicidual device ?
If its a laptop get a device such as Item number: 160061258026 then put the hdd in it, gain access to it from another pc via its USB2 cable - and perform a chkdsk i: /r (where i: is the drive letter) If like mine it had a disk error the /r will resolve it. Takes a while anything from 1 hour to complete all 5 stages. Then when finished put the hdd back in the laptop and hey presto - it will work.
Probabaly same solution via PC hdd.
Then do a full system disk check, defrag and backup. Just in case.
I am encountering this dam stupid System32 corrupt message almost every 2 days. My computer was checked for any faulty hardware (ram, NIC, Video card, hard-disk, you-name-it-it-was-checked, etc.). Everything is OK.
All software, drivers, etc. are up to date and fully functioning. Once in while I am working and suddenly (BANG), XP dies on me and nothing will restart the dam thing (recovery console included).
Being an IT specialist I was used to take daily backup of data but with this OS nightmare I have lost confidence in XP. I have so much software that reformatting the hard-disk, reinstalling the OS, the software, my data and calling Microsoft for a reactivation number was now a 6 hours trek.
I got totally fed up and came up with an interesting but a bit expensive solution.
I purchased a copy of Symantec Ghost, a hard-disk removable tray and 7 hard-disks. Everyday I make a complete image of my internal hard-disk on a removable hard-disk. I change disk every day. It takes about 12 minutes for an 80 Gig HD.
Then when I encounter this dam stupid system32 corrupted message and the infamous blue screen of death, I don’t even try to fix the nightmare. I pop-in my last removable HD, boot a diskette with Ghost and restore the full image from D: to C:. It takes 8 minutes, I loose a bit of data (any information I changed since the day before) and (Bingo) I am back in production. I even have a few removable HD in my car trunk for security.
My best advice: purchase Symantec Ghost, one removable HD tray and a few HD. Forget about fixing this dam system32 message and enjoy life.
I have had the same problem and ended up making my master drive a slave drive. But now I have the problem of losing all my outlook express emails. I was able to reload the address book but it even gave me a hard time as my old drive the now slave drive in outlook express is accessing the new outlook express’s settings and files and has deleted my old stuff. I desperately need my old email and have looked in the old documents and settings/user /local settings/ application data etc folders and nothing is there. Does anyone have any idea what I can do?
Thanking anyone in advance all help would be greatly appreciated.
Same problem as all of you (booting up, greeted by STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): /SystemRoot/System32/Config/SOFTWARE or its log or alternate. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable. Beginning dump of physical memory. Physical memory dump complete. Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance). Problem is in my case, that I dont have the boot disk, or any boot disk for that matter of any shape or form (the guy I bought my laptop from is unreachable) and the fact that all of the soloutions proposed involve having said boot disk, im shafted. What can I do to get me laptop working??? any help would be lovely, thanks so much for your time =D.
Here is some helpful advice! I am also getting the same lovely blue screen as you are all getting. Through process of elimination I found that disabling my usb controller lets windows boot up normally. I am using windows 2000, but the drawback is no usb. My machine is an older dell dimension 8100. If it does work you will be able to get your data off if you want to reformat. My error began after upgrading to servicepack 4.
I agree, joseph, i restarted my computer about 10 times, then gave up. Half hour later I switched it on and continued to get the error for about 5 restarts, until it randomly started up I ran it in safe mode without networking, ran chkdsk /F and it found sections of disk that were allocated as free space and were’t supposed to be but it fixed itself and i’m back in business.
I also had this problem with blue screen. In my case it was with my windows server 2003 os.
I put the server 2003 disk in and booted from cd. instead of installing the OS like you normally do, push R to load the recovery console (if you have multiple OSs you gotta make sure your logged into the correct one obviously)
from here you can copy the file ‘SOFTWARE’ (no extension) from C:\WINDOWS\REPAIR\ to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\
If you can, back up the SOFTWARE file from C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\ to sum temp directory before replacing it with the one fromt he REPAIR folder
i didnt/couldnt because the SOFTWARE file was so corrupt it wouldnt copy it, it wouldnt event list it when typing DIR
But be careful. All your actual configuration will be restored by the “repair” one. So, if your repais archive is old, you will need to recreate lan, video, and other configuration and also software instalation. But your archives will be there.
In my case I did it using win2k and it works.
Theres a good description of how to do this repair step by step. Its simple compared to the Microsoft way. If this fix doesnt work there are others there too. Hope this helps.
I found this forum quite usefull and the link to the microsoft page that showed how to correct a corrupted registry was also good, but….. if we take a step back and think about why the registry is corrupted in the first place we might find some other ways to resolve the problem.
The corruption could be caused by bad sectors on your hard disk. In my case I carry my laptop all over the house while it is on and occasionally it gets bumped. I was able to recover by corrupted SOFTWARE registry file by just running chkdsk.
Boot your system with the Windows XP Install CD, let the system boot into the Setup. Once in the Setup, choose to run the Recovery Console.
You will now be presented with a screen similar to good old DOS.
Run CHKDSK /R (for repair) and see if it detects and corrects any hard disk errors. It might take 30 minutes to an hour to run depending on the size of your hard disk.
In my case it took about 45 minutes and fixed 1 or more corrupted sectors and I was able to recover and boot back to where the system crashed last night.
I had the problem 2 days ago
right after performing a WinUpdate and installing new SP for .NET Framework 2 & 3 …
MS solution is ok, and all my softs are still working even if I hav never performed any “backup” task. Because i’m using NTFS, in the directory C:\System Volume Information you can find some saved versions of your registry hives, mine were 2 days old, so restauration did not break any software. Good surprise !
1. Obtain a copy of ubuntu 7.01 “Live CD”
2. Place in CD drive and Boot your PC from the ubuntu CD
3. Open a terminal window and register as root as follows:
$ su passwd root
4. Now login as root:
$ su
5. Perform a forced unmount of the disk that has failed:
$ mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/disk - o force (substitute your disk)
6. Open the disk on the ubuntu desktop, and copy to a portable disk on a USB port
7. Worked for me!
the certain file “software” is corrupt or missing.
all you have to do is replace it with a working one, by following the instructions by microsoft, or try to repair it running chkdsk /r from a command prompt.
a boot disk can be handy. it can be a win98 (if you have FAT32), linux, windows or any of the repair boot disks there exist (google “boot disk” to find some bundles that you can burn to a cd and have handy for the future).
in my case (win2000), all it took was a boot with Wininternals (now owned by Microsoft) “ERD Commander 2007″. the computer started, ERD boot up and automatically repaired the problem. then i logedd off, took the CD out of the drive and the system was up.
demos
Random and specific beauty and ugly.
I can help you fix that problem email me for the Complete Details IF and only if you still have this problem now. I just recovered manually (there’s no other way) from the same error!
Just one question if you email me back how did you see the error. I had to fucking record my screen with a camera just to see it!!!!??????
Hi, my computer just started with this problem today. I have no idea why it happened or how to fix it. I would like to email you so that you can tell me how to fix it but i dont know how to. I dont see a link for your email address. Please let me know soon, thanks.
i have the error message and im not sure how to fix it. i saw it by keep resetting my pc and looking a bit at a time. fucking tricky
I have the \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE is corrupt! Error. Please HELP. Any advicew would be greatly appreciated.
I too am having same problem..I recorded it with camera just like above..How do you fix???
Hi,
I’m having this problem as well with a Dell 6400 with a RAID array of SCSI disks - I’ve replaced one disk that died in the array, it has rebuilt correctly, but is still giving this error. How do I fix it manually? Would restoring the registry from tape backup help? I’m having the day from hell - any and all help much appreciated!
Dave
I had this problem before, and it’s back. AARRHHH!!!! I hate having to reformat and reinstall all of my programs again; it takes waaaaay to long.
No system recovery or boot fix works on this error, anyone have a solution?
Hi!!!
I am worried about that problem \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
I have important information and I can`t reformat my PC because i have some pieces of my Thesis of degree.
I don`t know what to do?
someone can help me Please…..
PLease if some one know spanish, is better for me!!
Thank you
Hi!!!
I am worried about that problem \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
I have important information and I can`t reformat my PC because i have some pieces of my Thesis of degree.
I don`t know what to do?
someone can help me Please…..
PLease if some one know spanish, is better for me!!
Thank you
If you have another PC remove you harddrive and put as SLAVE into the other PC then recover your files before formating it.
I hope this helps
Brahm
Can anyone plzzzzzz help me ive just got this problem yesterday. I have two local disks on my computer but only one hard drive inside. Does anyone know how to fix it without formatting my drive. I would just copy over to second local disk but its only 7GB and the others 43GB. Im on windows xp. plz if anyone knows how to fix it plzz help.
Have also had the “systemroot\system32\config\software” on the blue screen of death, and been told that it is corrupt, am in the final year of degree and am desperate to solve it! To make matters worse its on my laptop and i cant take the hard drive out, anyone any suggestions????
When I originally posted this rather short scream of anguish, I never expected it to get quite so much attention. It seems that this page is now a major gathering point for people who have problems with \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
For the record, it seems that this message appears either because the hard disk has become corrupt (e.g. bad sectors containing the SOFTWARE registry keys) or because, as in my case, there are problems with the hard disk controller. Replacing the disk or the controller might solve your problems - adding a second disk and installing Windows on that might allow you to rescue any data from the problem disk.
If this is not possible, you _might_ be able to install a second version of Windows on the _same_ disk as the problem copy, and then rescue your data that way (just boot off the Windows installation disk and tell it to install a fresh copy of Windows), but in any case you’d be best off getting a new disk drive as soon as you can because chances are your old one is on the way out and you’re going to lose vital files sooner or later.
I hope this is of some use to somebody.
had the same error and was looking for advice after I took a ****ing picture with my digicam so I could read the engraving of the tombstone. I received this error after installing a brandnew Hitachi 200GB drive. I am now on the third ****ing installation and it started screwing up after configuring different users under XP. Selected a screensaver (marquee) and the machine rebooted and came back as a ghost with the blue screen of death flash (which I captured with the cam so I could actually read it) continously rebooting - no option would work. Tried to repair XP w/o reformatting, but it doesn’t work. I am thinking it may have something to do due to XP limiting the harddrive addressing to 136GB w/o SP1.
I will switch to Linux SUSE 9.x but I still have some software that I need under windows for now until I converted to Linux and can give MS the mental middlefinger.
I was hoping I could replace the files.
I am thinking putting the bigger h/d into a newer motherboard and use the <136 GB drive there to my older motherboard hoping that will work. We’ll see unless somebody has a better recipe for one of MS’ many OS crimes.
Go Linux and support open platforms is the lesson here for myself anyway.
good luck and as little dataloss to you as possible.
Thomas
I am having the same problem with an added twist, I have SATA HD’s and Win2K Pro doesn’t have the driver for them. Luckily, I kept my disks with all those drivers.
In either case, this file was corrupt (and still is), and the only way I could get into windows was to perform the OS installation again, but chose the “R” repair option at first, and then select “C” for console. This will bring you into “DOS”. From there, you select which OS you’d like to fix (it gives you a couple choices and most likely, you’ll just end up picking #1 since there may not be any others), and then it’ll ask you for the administrator password.
Once you get this, you will have access to your computer through “DOS” (if you’re not good with DOS, I guess you’re SOL). You then have to make your way to the above mentioned directory (systemroot\system32\config) and you will see the “software” file. This is the corrupted file. Rename it to software.cor or software.bad or something stupid like that. Make a copy of your backup software.old or whatever your backup software file is, and then rename the backup to “software”.
this should boot you into windows, but that’s as far as it’ll go. You still have to enter in the username and password when windows boots up, and once you get in, all you’ll have (or all I had) was a blue screen, no start menu, no icons, nothing. I had to CTRL-ALT-DEL to pop-up my task manager to run “cmd” (command prompt) and then using DOS commands in command prompt, run various program (like my web browser)
hope this helps
I had this problem too and yes I needed to take a digital picture of the screen so that I could read the error message.
1. I booted to a CD of the OS. Selected the console repair option.
2. I could get to the corrupt files but the .sav version was corrupt too.
3. I could not get to my wife’s important data files because they were under NTFS. (I just found a great reason to never use NTFS.)
4. I ran CHKDSK -R and it found and fixed some disk problems.
5. I ran FIXBOOT and it did something. (I have no idea what).
6. After all this, I still got the blue screen on boot.
7. I reinstalled the OS right on top of the old OS.
8. Before I did anything else I downloaded the Maxtor diagnostic and the Dell diagnostic utilities. I ran both on the entire system without any problems reported.
9. I completed the OS upgrade (Windows Update) and now I’m in the process of reinstalling all the software.
10. Because all data was kept in separate directories, I was able to recover all important data.
11. Today, I will make a repair disk for the PC and I will backup all important data to writable CD or to the zip disk.
All in all, a complete pain in the ass with no permanent repurcussions.
Good Luck
I have the same problem with my notebook Toshiba and
Win2000. Searching in Internet I found the following infos (I did not tried yet!).
At the address
http://forums.driverguide.com/showthread.php?t=2004&page=3&pp=10
you can read:
There are two ways to get back up and running. The easy way which doesn’t always work, and then there is the hard way.
Easy Way — Note that this doesn’t always work.
When you are booting your system, press the F8 key during the start of the bootup sequence, meaning after it does the Power On Self Test.
Once you press the F8 key, you will be taken to a Menu. Select “Boot Using Last Known Good Configuration”.
It will now attempt to load Windows XP using a past set of configuration files.
If that doesn’t work, there is the next step….the hard way.
Hard Way
Boot your system with the Windows XP Install CD, let the system boot into the Setup. Once in the Setup, choose to run the Recovery Console.
You will now be presented with a screen similar to good old DOS.
First, we will recover the System Hive.
Now, type in the following commands with pressing Enter after each line.
md tmp
copy C:\windows\system32\config\system C:\windows\tmp\system.bak
delete C:\windows\system32\config\system
copy C:\windows\repair\system C:\windows\system32\config\system
Be very careful when you are typing in these commands, one wrong move, and you have, broken Windows XP.
Also, change the C in the commands to whatever your Windows XP drive letter is.
Attempt to boot the system, if it doesn’t boot, get back into the Recovery Console and do the following commands.
md tmp
copy C:\windows\system32\config\software C:\windows\tmp\software.bak
delete C:\windows\system32\config\software
copy C:\windows\repair\software C:\windows\system32\config\software
Okay…so I hit this last night, of course, right when I needed to VPN into work and make some changes. Fortunately I had a dual boot machine set up and could still get into linux. I could even use the linux partition to grab files off of the WindowsXP partition. But you cannot make changes to the Windows partition using linux if the Windows box is installed on NTFS. Otherwise I could have made repairs and just restarted.
Since this occurred I’ve decided, any system that is totally dependent on a single file for all of it’s configuration should never be considered stable!
My computer went down yesterday and i cant get anywhere with it.It says I have lost systemroot/system32/config/software it wont let me go on safe mode or anything can someone plz help me.thank u
Got this error also. It is viscious. Had to reimage.
This worked for me. Click on the KB Article Link and follow the directions.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545
Forgot the link, DOH!
To prevent your computer to reboot without any info with this error, you must deactivate the check box in Start->Control Panel->System->Enhanced Options->Start and Recovery->configuration->Automatically reboot
(sorry if it’s not like in your english version of XP, but my version is in spanish)
After that, when you get an error you could see the error. When I get this error, I left the computer restarting continuously and, after 1 hour!, the computer booted.
Hope this help!
Pablo
you dont have to take a picture of the error message. when its loading go into advanced setup and select disable automatic restart on system failure. that way the blue screen will just stay there and you have to manually shutdown/restart
-ryan
Ok, to bring up an oldish problem.
I have got this error but the way that mine is different is that when I try to run the recovery console from the Windows XP disk, it tells me that there isn’t a hard drive recognisable.
Can anyone shed any light on this, or am I going to have to purchase a 2nd hard drive in order to try and recover my files from the damaged hard drive?
I had (have) this problem, too, w2k,
STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writeable.
For the moment I’m putting the installation cd in and rebooting hitting until either the ‘one time boot from cd’ menu comes up or it just boots straight up.
Not very scientific, but it lets you in so that you can try replacing the SOFTWARE file with its back-up (I haven’t tried yet, but I just backed up my HD, so here goes).
Could this have to do with size of registry?
mine is close to 32MB… for “software”
I am now applying all service packs and security patches for Win2003 server.
Oddly enough if i let the memory dump finish and remove all USB devices my system starts. This problem started after I installed some unsigned drivers for my canon s500 digital elph camera !!BEWARE!!
i have this same problem.only my lap top whont read my winXp cd or eney other cd. it just keeps booting into safe mod .eney help would be apr!
hey peeps . . i am havin trouble with the systemroot\system32\config\software .. i get the blue screen of death on my 80gig hdd. and i cant start my pc . i am using a 9gig hdd now . but i cant recover most of my data . i had tried to start my pc with the windows xp cd but i get an error msg somthin like i890 or somthin like that . can someone help me plsss ..
the same happened to me on dell optiplex GX 1 computer with new 30 GB disk.
in my case:
1. rebboting computer few times helps
2. load last known configuration also helps
but error reapeatadly happens to me, and it won’t stop
I was reading all of the comments and the one by George Kopf is extremely helpful except everytime I type in the line:
copy C:\windows\system32\config\system C:\windows\tmp\system.bak
it says -
The system cannot find the file specified. And I don’t know where to go from here. I actually replaced my Software file which is what it says was corrupt but now I can’t replace my system file to allow the computer to start up. Any help would be great, otherwise I’ll keep looking around.
I’m having the same problem for my DELL Desktop.
It keeps on stating:
STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writeable.
Dumping memory to disk: [in counting]
I found a website that helps me, but I can not start my Recovery Console. How do I get my HD to read my drive when it boots so that I can load Win XP?
I have the STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writeable.
error message when i start my computer and found a microsoft website that works for windows xp,
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545
but i have windows 2000. i made an emergency backup disk also but dont know how to use it, please help.
I have had the same problem and I too had to reboot 600 times to encrypt what the blue screen stated. After typing in the systemroot/system32 etc directory I saw this thread. I am afraid I will loose the majority of my school data. I don’t have the windows boot disk anymore, I lost it when I moved a month or so a go. The easy way doesnt work for me, is there a possibility to get it fixed by booting from a WINDOWS XP cd that isnt yours?
kind regards,
mike
For Some Reason, whenever I try to type in “md tmp” in Recovery Mode from the guide posted by Marco, it will only let me type in one letter. All the other letters do not appear.
Is there any way to solve this without rebooting?
Have the same problem with Dell 8300 since last night. Run diagnostics, all ok. Attempt to follow MS and Dell instructions for replacing SOFTWARE file via the recover console, but DOS copy command doesn’t work on this file (it does on all the other files mentioned in system/system32/config). No attributes preventing it as far as I can see. How can I copy and/or rename this file? Any suggestions for preventing (major) data loss are very welcome!
You could try the following It worked for me.
The computer in question is in the bar/club I use and beer was being drunk as we worked at the problem. I went over what we did last night with the guy who had the problem.
Let me just run over how we arrived at the solution again.
On checking, the bios (f3 on boot up)was set up to go to hard disk, then the cdrom for boot up.
Obviously with a windows/registry problem there was a lock up as it tried the hard disk first. The boot order was changed in the bios to access a boot from the windows/recovery disk the guy had.
Basically we ended up at the good old “C:\Windows” prompt.
I then ran “CHKDSK”
The report showed bad clusters.
Out of OLD habit I then ran “CHKDSK /f” as opposed to the /r option. (I have since check the help file in XP and noticed the /F option is not even listed. If I remember right in the old DOS days the /f option included the /r option)
Remember it can take a little while to run. Watch the % completed.
Once completed I executed a “DIR” and we could see the .tmp files listed.CHKDSK saves info to these files.
The CD was removed and a reboot executed and XP booted without problem.
Result = 2 free pints for me and several raises of the glasses to my old tutors. It just goes to prove I WAS paying attention during classes!
I don’t promise a cure all but it was a simple fix in this case. Good luck all.
I just had the same problem last night. I was able to fix it by using the steps listed in this article from Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545
hi,
I have the same problem, i cnt go on the safe mode or anything else. What is the best way to fix it??
thanks
Can’t you just do a re-install of windows xp?? I’m on chkdsk now and I think I’ll try a reinstall before going through the motions described in the microsoft kb article.
This one should worked for me, follow this link:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545
I did for the SOFTWARE portion only.
I had this classic problem and tried Pete’s 2-pint “CHKDSK /r” cure from “C:\Windows”. Praise the Lord, cause it worked, and this morning I’m no longer the poor sucker that lost all my work. BTW, the “CHKDSK” took a couple hours to run. I finally gave up and went to bed. In the morning, I looked at the results of the CHKDSK command, typed “exit” at the “C:\Windows” prompt, chose to “Reboot Normally”, and voila! This is going to be a good Friday. Thanks All!
I had a similar error systemroot/system32/config/software on my TOSHIBA notebook yesterday and desperately required assistance on retrieving files from my HD. Well, the good news is that I manages to retrieve all my files.
You can visit the site http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545 for more details. Follow each step like it mentions on there.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545
^ This worked a charm for me. All files and software still intact!
K I figured out a way to fix this.
You install another windows onto the drive. You change the permissions of the original winnt folder. Then in the winnt folder, there is a folder called repair. Copy the software file and place it into winnt/system32/config folder and voila your problem is solved. Uninstall the duplicate windows, and restart your comp. Also change the permissions back to the orginal. Some software might not work but just reinstall and everything is fine. Nothing lost, and your a hero to your collegues.
Forgot to mention that I had to do all that because the admin password was lost so I don’t know if the other way works better.
Same error - corrupt or missing SOFTWARE hive of the registry. (W2K) NTFS volume
Needed to rerun install disk -> console admin password -> chkdsk (no /f option only /p or /r which calls /p but attempts recovery) -> no joy.
Luckily this happened earlier this year & I had a copy of the partition before conversion to NTFS thanks to linux and PARTIMAGE -> replaced my root windows partition (software & important data on other partitions) and reinstalled software - fix up only took 5 hours versus 2 days last time (replaced whole hard drive) DFI AD70-SR KT266A probably its the USB 1.1 controllers didn’t use them much initially but with as usb modem machine crashed irregularly but spectacularly…
So… MAKE BACKUPS - not sure if simply replacing broken hives would have been enough as who knows what other files got ruined - PS why is the software hive sssssoooooo vulnerable in windows???
I managed to keep my computer from restarting when the problem arises….the blue screen reads: “STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): /SystemRoot/System32/Config/SOFTWARE or its log or alternate. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable. Beginning dump of physical memory. Physical memory dump complete. Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance
Hi,
I managed to keep my computer from restarting when the problem arises….the blue screen reads: “STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): /SystemRoot/System32/Config/SOFTWARE or its log or alternate. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable. Beginning dump of physical memory. Physical memory dump complete. Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance
Need help immedetely .
Sup guys. I had same problem on IBM laptop. To solve the problem I inserted disk into other laptop as secondary drive and ran scandisk on it with all options turned on. When running scandisk it generated a log which described problem as bad cluster in file config\software and that the bad clusters has been fixed. I then rebooted pc with harddisk in affected pc and WOIILAAA the shit problem was gone
I have the same problem i started up my comp and it comes to a black screen saying /SystemRoot/System32/Config/SOFTWARE is corrupt or missing
Press ‘R’ to repair, you have to put in a set up disk … i dont have it, is there some site i can dowload it from? ( *picks up bat and stares at comp menacingly…)
Hello, I’ve ben having the system32/config/system error on an old pc of mine, an AMD K6 with 128mb of RAM and a 5gb HD. I’ve tried reinstalling windows, I’ve tried r for recovery console but it didn’t work. Would I be able to install Linux on a pc with this problem from DOS, and if so, how?
Hello,
i have been having same SystemRoot\ System32\ Config\ SOFTWARE is corrupt. i just replaced this file with Systemroot\repair\Software.
it works
cheersssssssss
Naresh
I have a blue screen that reads: “STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): /SystemRoot/System32/Config/SOFTWARE or its log or alternate. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable. Beginning dump of physical memory. Physical memory dump complete. Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance
Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rhonda
I tried the Microsoft resolution but it did not work for me a the \config\software file is corrupted or possibly the disk area its resident in has a fault.
Also I have taken all the data off of this failed hdd of my laptop, by using a device I bought back in the summer for backing up photo’s. Mate who got it for me bought it on ebuyer for about £25 excluding the internal hdd.
Attacthed my faulty HDD to it yesterday, and copied all the files I could to a 300gb MAXTOR backup device I have. The only one that would not copy was the /config/software file. So hence my reasoning with the above. I think my only alternative is the resolutions posted by these people, and will try them later.
Mar 21st, 2006 at 10:27 pm
May 19th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Oct 4th, 2006 at 9:21 am
If that fails its time for a new HDD for my laptop - has been making clicking noises lately anyway.
The question I would like to know is what exactly is the \software file and what does it do - and can one from my other laptop be copied onto it - or is it perticular to its indicidual device ?
Thanks
Peter
If its a laptop get a device such as Item number: 160061258026 then put the hdd in it, gain access to it from another pc via its USB2 cable - and perform a chkdsk i: /r (where i: is the drive letter) If like mine it had a disk error the /r will resolve it. Takes a while anything from 1 hour to complete all 5 stages. Then when finished put the hdd back in the laptop and hey presto - it will work.
Probabaly same solution via PC hdd.
Then do a full system disk check, defrag and backup. Just in case.
Hope this helps.
Sorry ebay Item number: 160061258026 also doubles up as a memory card data bank - if you get you own hdd for it too - great on hols.
I am encountering this dam stupid System32 corrupt message almost every 2 days. My computer was checked for any faulty hardware (ram, NIC, Video card, hard-disk, you-name-it-it-was-checked, etc.). Everything is OK.
All software, drivers, etc. are up to date and fully functioning. Once in while I am working and suddenly (BANG), XP dies on me and nothing will restart the dam thing (recovery console included).
Being an IT specialist I was used to take daily backup of data but with this OS nightmare I have lost confidence in XP. I have so much software that reformatting the hard-disk, reinstalling the OS, the software, my data and calling Microsoft for a reactivation number was now a 6 hours trek.
I got totally fed up and came up with an interesting but a bit expensive solution.
I purchased a copy of Symantec Ghost, a hard-disk removable tray and 7 hard-disks. Everyday I make a complete image of my internal hard-disk on a removable hard-disk. I change disk every day. It takes about 12 minutes for an 80 Gig HD.
Then when I encounter this dam stupid system32 corrupted message and the infamous blue screen of death, I don’t even try to fix the nightmare. I pop-in my last removable HD, boot a diskette with Ghost and restore the full image from D: to C:. It takes 8 minutes, I loose a bit of data (any information I changed since the day before) and (Bingo) I am back in production. I even have a few removable HD in my car trunk for security.
My best advice: purchase Symantec Ghost, one removable HD tray and a few HD. Forget about fixing this dam system32 message and enjoy life.
I have had the same problem and ended up making my master drive a slave drive. But now I have the problem of losing all my outlook express emails. I was able to reload the address book but it even gave me a hard time as my old drive the now slave drive in outlook express is accessing the new outlook express’s settings and files and has deleted my old stuff. I desperately need my old email and have looked in the old documents and settings/user /local settings/ application data etc folders and nothing is there. Does anyone have any idea what I can do?
Thanking anyone in advance all help would be greatly appreciated.
Same problem as all of you (booting up, greeted by STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): /SystemRoot/System32/Config/SOFTWARE or its log or alternate. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable. Beginning dump of physical memory. Physical memory dump complete. Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance). Problem is in my case, that I dont have the boot disk, or any boot disk for that matter of any shape or form (the guy I bought my laptop from is unreachable) and the fact that all of the soloutions proposed involve having said boot disk, im shafted. What can I do to get me laptop working??? any help would be lovely, thanks so much for your time =D.
Here is some helpful advice! I am also getting the same lovely blue screen as you are all getting. Through process of elimination I found that disabling my usb controller lets windows boot up normally. I am using windows 2000, but the drawback is no usb. My machine is an older dell dimension 8100. If it does work you will be able to get your data off if you want to reformat. My error began after upgrading to servicepack 4.
try to restar and resatrt. in my case after 5 th restart the system came up automatically. but i dont know how.
I agree, joseph, i restarted my computer about 10 times, then gave up. Half hour later I switched it on and continued to get the error for about 5 restarts, until it randomly started up I ran it in safe mode without networking, ran chkdsk /F and it found sections of disk that were allocated as free space and were’t supposed to be but it fixed itself and i’m back in business.
I also had this problem with blue screen. In my case it was with my windows server 2003 os.
I put the server 2003 disk in and booted from cd. instead of installing the OS like you normally do, push R to load the recovery console (if you have multiple OSs you gotta make sure your logged into the correct one obviously)
from here you can copy the file ‘SOFTWARE’ (no extension) from C:\WINDOWS\REPAIR\ to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\
If you can, back up the SOFTWARE file from C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\ to sum temp directory before replacing it with the one fromt he REPAIR folder
i didnt/couldnt because the SOFTWARE file was so corrupt it wouldnt copy it, it wouldnt event list it when typing DIR
It works
The words published by Marcos works:
Hard Way
Boot your system with the Windows XP Install CD, let the system boot into the Setup. Once in the Setup, choose to run the Recovery Console.
You will now be presented with a screen similar to good old DOS.
First, we will recover the System Hive.
Now, type in the following commands with pressing Enter after each line.
md tmp
copy C:\windows\system32\config\system C:\windows\tmp\system.bak
delete C:\windows\system32\config\system
copy C:\windows\repair\system C:\windows\system32\config\system
Be very careful when you are typing in these commands, one wrong move, and you have, broken Windows XP.
Also, change the C in the commands to whatever your Windows XP drive letter is.
Attempt to boot the system, if it doesn’t boot, get back into the Recovery Console and do the following commands.
md tmp
copy C:\windows\system32\config\software C:\windows\tmp\software.bak
delete C:\windows\system32\config\software
copy C:\windows\repair\software C:\windows\system32\config\software
But be careful. All your actual configuration will be restored by the “repair” one. So, if your repais archive is old, you will need to recreate lan, video, and other configuration and also software instalation. But your archives will be there.
In my case I did it using win2k and it works.
Theres several different ways to fix this problem.
Go here: http://www.icompute.info/System_restore_from_xp_cd.htm
to start.
Theres a good description of how to do this repair step by step. Its simple compared to the Microsoft way. If this fix doesnt work there are others there too. Hope this helps.
is it possable to copy the software file from a working computer to the computer that is broken using backtrack 2(linux) to resolve the problem?
I found this forum quite usefull and the link to the microsoft page that showed how to correct a corrupted registry was also good, but….. if we take a step back and think about why the registry is corrupted in the first place we might find some other ways to resolve the problem.
The corruption could be caused by bad sectors on your hard disk. In my case I carry my laptop all over the house while it is on and occasionally it gets bumped. I was able to recover by corrupted SOFTWARE registry file by just running chkdsk.
Boot your system with the Windows XP Install CD, let the system boot into the Setup. Once in the Setup, choose to run the Recovery Console.
You will now be presented with a screen similar to good old DOS.
Run CHKDSK /R (for repair) and see if it detects and corrects any hard disk errors. It might take 30 minutes to an hour to run depending on the size of your hard disk.
In my case it took about 45 minutes and fixed 1 or more corrupted sectors and I was able to recover and boot back to where the system crashed last night.
I had the problem 2 days ago
right after performing a WinUpdate and installing new SP for .NET Framework 2 & 3 …
MS solution is ok, and all my softs are still working even if I hav never performed any “backup” task. Because i’m using NTFS, in the directory C:\System Volume Information you can find some saved versions of your registry hives, mine were 2 days old, so restauration did not break any software. Good surprise !
Good luck
1. Obtain a copy of ubuntu 7.01 “Live CD”
2. Place in CD drive and Boot your PC from the ubuntu CD
3. Open a terminal window and register as root as follows:
$ su passwd root
4. Now login as root:
$ su
5. Perform a forced unmount of the disk that has failed:
$ mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/disk - o force (substitute your disk)
6. Open the disk on the ubuntu desktop, and copy to a portable disk on a USB port
7. Worked for me!
the certain file “software” is corrupt or missing.
all you have to do is replace it with a working one, by following the instructions by microsoft, or try to repair it running chkdsk /r from a command prompt.
a boot disk can be handy. it can be a win98 (if you have FAT32), linux, windows or any of the repair boot disks there exist (google “boot disk” to find some bundles that you can burn to a cd and have handy for the future).
in my case (win2000), all it took was a boot with Wininternals (now owned by Microsoft) “ERD Commander 2007″. the computer started, ERD boot up and automatically repaired the problem. then i logedd off, took the CD out of the drive and the system was up.