Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

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If you have a spare machine you can do a lot of this by plugging the HDD via USB in a caddy or converter.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

To complete part one, follow these steps:

  1. Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.
    Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
  2. When the “Welcome to Setup” screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
  3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
  4. When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
  5. At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following lines, pressing ENTER after you type each line:
    md tmp
    copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
    copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
    copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
    copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
    copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak
    delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
    delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
    delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
    delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
    delete c:\windows\system32\config\defaultcopy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
    copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
    copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
    copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
    copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

  6. Type exit to quit Recovery Console. Your computer will restart.

Seems to work.

UPDATE: Another call and it failed this time because there appeared to be no “system” in the repair folder.  Got around this by taking the drive out the laptop and hooking it up to another machine as a 2nd drive.  Then went into the Windows repair and found an old system.bak file.  A few years old but better than nothing to get the system up.

Put drive back in, rebooted to Window and was like a new PC, nothing in add/remove, not on domain anymore etc.

So then followed step 2 in the MS guide:

Part two

To complete the procedure described in this section, you must be logged on as an administrator, or an administrative user (a user who has an account in the Administrators group). If you are using Windows XP Home Edition, you can log on as an administrative user. If you log on as an administrator, you must first start Windows XP Home Edition in Safe mode. To start the Windows XP Home Edition computer in Safe mode, follow these steps.

NotePrint these instructions before you continue. You cannot view these instructions after you restart the computer in Safe Mode. If you use the NTFS file system, also print the instructions from Knowledge Base article KB309531. Step 7 contains a reference to the article.

  1. Click Start, click Shut Down (or click Turn Off Computer), click Restart, and then click OK (or click Restart).
  2. Press the F8 key.On a computer that is configured to start to multiple operating systems, you can press F8 when you see the Startup menu.
  3. Use the arrow keys to select the appropriate Safe mode option, and then press ENTER.
  4. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, use the arrow keys to select the installation that you want to access, and then press ENTER.

In part two, you copy the registry files from their backed up location by using System Restore. This folder is not available in Recovery Console and is generally not visible during typical usage. Before you start this procedure, you must change several settings to make the folder visible:

  1. Start Windows Explorer.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Folder options.
  3. Click the View tab.
  4. Under Hidden files and folders, click to select Show hidden files and folders, and then click to clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box.
  5. Click Yes when the dialog box that confirms that you want to display these files appears.
  6. Double-click the drive where you installed Windows XP to display a list of the folders. If is important to click the correct drive.
  7. Open the System Volume Information folder. This folder is unavailable and appears dimmed because it is set as a super-hidden folder.Note This folder contains one or more _restore {GUID} folders such as “_restore{87BD3667-3246-476B-923F-F86E30B3E7F8}”.

    NoteYou may receive the following error message:

    C:\System Volume Information is not accessible. Access is denied.

    If you receive this message, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article to gain access to this folder and continue with the procedure:

    309531 How to gain access to the System Volume Information folder
  8. Open a folder that was not created at the current time. You may have to click Details on the View menu to see when these folders were created. There may be one or more folders starting with “RPx under this folder. These are restore points.
  9. Open one of these folders to locate a Snapshot subfolder. The following path is an example of a folder path to the Snapshot folder:
    C:\System Volume Information\_restore{D86480E3-73EF-47BC-A0EB-A81BE6EE3ED8}\RP1\Snapshot
  10. From the Snapshot folder, copy the following files to the C:\Windows\Tmp folder:
    • _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT
    • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
    • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
    • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
    • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
  11. Rename the files in the C:\Windows\Tmp folder as follows:
    • Rename _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT to DEFAULT
    • Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY to SECURITY
    • Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE to SOFTWARE
    • Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM to SYSTEM
    • Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM to SAM

These files are the backed up registry files from System Restore. Because you used the registry file that the Setup program created, this registry does not know that these restore points exist and are available. A new folder is created with a new GUID under System Volume Information and a restore point is created that includes a copy of the registry files that were copied during part one. Therefore, it is important not to use the most current folder, especially if the time stamp on the folder is the same as the current time.

The current system configuration is not aware of the previous restore points. You must have a previous copy of the registry from a previous restore point to make the previous restore points available again.

The registry files that were copied to the Tmp folder in the C:\Windows folder are moved to make sure that the files are available under Recovery Console. You must use these files to replace the registry files currently in the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder. By default, Recovery Console has limited folder access and cannot copy files from the System Volume folder.

NoteThe procedure described in this section assumes that you are running your computer with the FAT32 file system. For more information about how to access the System Volume Information Folder with the NTFS file system, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

309531 How to gain access to the System Volume Information folder

VMware Workstation unrecoverable error (vmui) Exception 0xc0000005 (access violation) has occurred.

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Have Workstation 7.1.5-491717 and works fine.  I then uninstall and install 8.0.0-471780 or 8.0.2-591240

And now when trying to run VMWare Workstation I get

VMware Workstation unrecoverable error (vmui)
Exception 0xc0000005 (access violation) has occurred.

I’m on Windows 7 Pro 64Bit.  If I uninstall 8 and go back to 7, it’s fine.  Workstation 8 works fine on my laptop though.

 

FIX –

I have Win7 x64, running Workastation 7. I attempted to upgrade to Workstation 8 (30 day trial) and ran into the same problem.

For me it turned out to be related to my “Favorites”. I finally got it working by moving the file “C:\Users\johna\AppData\Roaming\VMware\favorites.vmls” out of the folder it was in (temporarily) and then started VMWare; this time it started. Once started, it genearted a new file called “inventory.vmls”, I then dropped my file back into the folder, just in case I need to revert back to Workstation7.

I assume you might be able to accomplish the same thing by removing all your favorites, but I don’t know.

Hope this helps anyone with this problem.

How to disable and re-enable hibernation on a computer that is running Windows

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To make hibernation unavailable, follow these steps:

  1. Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.
  2. In the search results list, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator.
  3. When you are prompted by User Account Control, click Continue.
  4. At the command prompt, type powercfg.exe /hibernate off, and then press ENTER.
  5. Type exit and then press ENTER to close the Command Prompt window.

To make hibernation available, follow these steps:

  1. Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.
  2. In the search results list, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator.
  3. When you are prompted by User Account Control, click Continue.
  4. At the command prompt, type powercfg.exe /hibernate on, and then press ENTER.
  5. Type exit and then press ENTER to close the Command Prompt window.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920730

Disable WGA on XP

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http://wheremy.feethavebeen.com/2009/04/too-many-problems-oh-why-am-i-here/

I know with my recent Microsoft appraisals it may seem like I’m placing them on some sort of super-high pedestal that the rest can’t reach. Over the weekend Microsoft got knocked off that a couple times, almost as if the universe decided to spite me.

Reinstalling Windows - For KB905474 tests?

WGA Validation Fail.

Oh noes. What have we here? For those out of the loop, apparently unbeknowst to the public Microsoft slipped patch KB905474 through their update servers. Those of you who don’t check the updates and look into them before installing (probably most of you.. I can’t imagine anyone doing this unless they were completely paranoid) wouldn’t have even noticed this little doozy pass by. And then you’d never notice it again, until it told you that the pirated copy of windows that you were using was Pirated, and then refused to shut down your computer or start it up. It would also display a horrendous little notification on the bottom right of your screen and a system tray icon that refused to go away. Oh and it would bond to your OS, making it virtually impossible to remove. Once installed, KB905474 is here to stay.

Or is it? With a little know how KB905474 is actually fairly simple to remove. It invovles the use of a single tool that’s offered to the public for free and the steps are so easy someone who claims to be computer illiterate can easily perform them (trust me, I have validation on this).

  1. Download and install Unlocker. This handy little gem was actually found through a website that I frequent called Rarst, the particular post outlining it vs another file unlocker. In the end Unlocker won out for me simply because it was the easiest to use. What it does is take any file and list the files that are using it. You can then “unlock” the file from use. The Unlocker website contains and lot more details (and screenshots) of the whole process and the Rarst post contains a lot of good information for those of you who want  a bit more.
  2. Now go to this folder: C:\Windows\system32\ and look for the following files:
    wgalogon.dll
    WGATray.exe
    They’ll by right next to each other, so if you find one, you’ll find the other.
  3. Making sure every other window is closed, right click WGATray.exe and select unlocker. Simply select the file in the window that pops up and select unlock. Then rename the file to WGATray.exe.old. If Unlocker reports that a lock couldn’t be found, simply rename the file.
  4. Now right click wgalogon.dll and do the same thing. This file will have a lock on it, so you will have to select Unlock before you can tamper with it. Rename it to wgalogon.dll.old

You would have noticed that wgalogon.dll was actually tied directly into winlogon.exe which is essential for windows. This is why you can no longer remove it.

Now just open task manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL or right click the taskbar and select Task Manager). Click on the Processes tab and then click on the Image Name title, sorting them alphabetically. Now you can just find WGATray.exe and end the process. You will have noticed that if you tried to end it previously that it would just start back up again, but by renaming the file, it can no longer find it so it can’t start it.

Your computer will also refuse to shut down the first time this is done. This is because WGA is tied directly into Windows and it’s getting confused that it can no longer find it. Simply force shut down (hold the power button) and when that’s done boot up again and you should be fine.