XP won't boot. Things to try

[JoolzB]

I've been asked to look at an XP puter that won't boot, the message is something like Xp cannot boot missing or corrupt file C:\windows\config..., or somein like that, sorry I didn't write it down but it refers to the registry I believe.

I've tried F8 to get to "last lnown good configuration" but F8 just reboots the PC and I don't get the option. Next I tried booting from CD, this works until the repair part where I get a blue screen that says there is a problem and Windows is shutting down, check BIOS settings for memory settings. Done all that, tried removing hardware a bit at a time which included modems, USB card and other PCI cards, along with CD/DVD drives, still no difference. Anybody have any other ideas what else I could try?

[hzplj9]

If you have access to another PC. Try this it sometimes works. Connect the drive as a secondary drive and run a command prompt.

If the faulty drive is D then run a checkdisk on it from the command prompt by typing chkdsk /f.
If that is unsupproted then use the /p option from an XP disk booted to a command prompt. This may fix the windows system faults. I have used this in the past to get blue screeners and non booters up and running. You may have to move jumpers to set the drive as slave.

[obi]

had what i think was the same issue last month..

this sorted me out...

www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_sys32.htm...

[JoolzB]

I'll give them a go tonight, probly starting with Obi's article. The worrying thing was not getting the boot options pressing F8 and the blue screen after booting from CD, if it's similar to what you were getting then it sounds as if it may work, I was thinking it may be hardware failing so that's good to hear.

cheers

[SneakyNeil]

The article will put the registry back to the state of a fresh install, i.e. very little will work afterwards so I'd try hjz's thing first. Failing that do the article thing but instead of copying the file from windows epair look for a copy of it under system volume information in the various restore point folders, the newer the better - this will save you from having to re-install everything afterwards.

[bigdods]

Had this yesterday with my youngests old PC with win2000. I booted from my XP CD, then pressed R to get to the recovery console, then chkdsk /p to scan and repair the disk. All working again now :-)

Child suitably chastised for turning the PC off at the wall rather than shutting it down properly !