Oh this is beautiful.

The system is missing or corrupted. :screwy:

Lovely.

Windows\System32\Config\System Corrupt or Missing, gives me this error on booting, then just reboots itself, then gets the error again, continually. I booted up with a simple boot disk, and replaced the "system" file with the "system.sav" that was in that same folder, and rebooted. Part 2 of XP Setup starts, installing all the hardware (I can only assume this "system" file contains all the hardware info then). After wasting 30 minutes of my time installing drivers and such, it then says there's a fatal error with setup, and to reboot and try again. Does it every time.

So, erm, help? :uhoh:

Boot off the win xp cd and select the repair option. It should replace the corrupted files.

Boot off the win xp cd and select the repair option. It should replace the corrupted files.

How do I do that though? I put in the CD, set the BIOS to read from the CD before the HD, but it doesn't read it and continues to boot off the HD :(

How do I do that though? I put in the CD, set the BIOS to read from the CD before the HD, but it doesn't read it and continues to boot off the HD :(


do you get the message: "press any key to boot from the cd"?

Nope.

Nope.


weird, well you said you already set the bios to boot from the CD-ROM, if you have two optical drives you might have the CD in the slave drive and that might not allow it to boot. So switch in the other drive and try again.

In case your bios has the boot order listed as ide1, ide2 ide3.....make sure you have the right ide selected.


also check for small mistakes like: when exiting the bios after selecting to boot from the CDROM make sure you exit while saving the changes. Also make sure the CD is properly inserted and its not scratched to deth.

Found out the computer was too old to boot from the CD, so I got the program from the MS website that creates XP start up disks for you. The computer had been getting very slow and clogged, so I had been considering a reformat and reinstall, so I figured now would be a good time to do it.

Working like a charm now :D

Found out the computer was too old to boot from the CD, so I got the program from the MS website that creates XP start up disks for you. The computer had been getting very slow and clogged, so I had been considering a reformat and reinstall, so I figured now would be a good time to do it.

Working like a charm now :D



Dang I did not think of that, what the heck you running a P2 or a K6? :screwy:



Anyway as a Chinese fortune cookie would say: " The path to enlightement is trough upgrade"

Now that you're back up and running, check if there is a BIOS upgrade so you can boot from the CD in future.

I went down this path recently when installing XP SP2 and it ballsed up and I had a meltdown here at the office.

Dang I did not think of that, what the heck you running a P2 or a K6? :screwy:

AMD Duron 1.3GHz :dunno:

Just old BIOS I guess.

Go to your motherboards website and download the bios and install it like Oz said, but make sure you follow the instructions otherwise you will not be able to get in. I had to do it recently on one of my older PCs here at home.

TS out