XP system 32 corrupt or missing file error...

[arif110]

Hi there,

"Windows cannot start because a file is missing or corrupt" & it's a system32 file.

The title is from memory of a booting error I got on my laptop (Toshiba Satellite Pro L10) - and apparently the only way out is to completely reboot - losing everything.

I do keep back-ups, but only recently discovered what disk imaging was (Norton Ghost) - as up until now, I've lost all installed programs, and had to re-install every time. Microsoft Office has now also told me I've run out of activations!! I paid a lot of money for that program, trying to be legit about it!!

So - did I really have to completely reboot - & now that I have Norton Ghost - will it all be okay if it happens again (i.e. full restore)?

A whole series of flustered questions.

I do have the Toshiba product recovery disk - but this has only helped with rebooting to square one.

[tonsko]

Was this after a recent update? It did it to me on friday.

[sneakyneil]

If the only thing you've got to hand is the tosh recovery disk I think you're stuck unless you want to give it to a PC repair shop.

[Tonsko]

In theory, the recovery disc should only replace the OS on the system partition ('C:') - all your saved data on the second partition ('D:') should still be there.