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Missing or corrupt SYSTEM.ced

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by aauriemma

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When attempting to boot into Windows2000 Professional I am recieving the following error: Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM.ced Technet was not helpful (Q269075) did not resolve problem. Please help.

4 replies

by quintar51

I was not able to find any other articles besides the one you already found. It looks like you'll need to reinstall.

by wcp

You need a Windows 2000 Pro boot disk to boot to Windows.
The boot disk should have NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and BOOT.INI.
If you do not have a boot disk, refer to MS Knowledge Base Q301680 (HOW TO: Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows).
If you are able to boot to Win 2K, one or more of the above boot files in C: are placed beyond 7.8GB and your motherboard BIOS has the INT 13 limits. Because you do not want to use the boot disk every time, you may try to delete the bootfiles in C: and copy them from the boot disk. You may have to do this a few times. The idea is to place the boot files within 7.8GB.
If this does not work, one of your options is to back up your important files and reinstall Windows 2K.
I always create a small System Partition (1GB or less), where boot files are, in FAT and a Boot Partition, where system files are, in NTFS for Windows NT 4.0, 2K , and XP.

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