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Starting W2K

By LSP ·
I have a Dell Precision 330 that initially gave an error message of "hd drive failure strike F1 to continue or F2 for setup." I resolved that error message only to encounter the following "Windows cannot start because the following file is missing or corrupted WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM." I was able to copy the missing/corrupted file to the root directory using the Recovery Console on W2K CD. Now system gets to the "Starting Windows strike F8 for other boot options" page and hangs. The hard disk has a lot of information that I need to keep so I would like to avoid a complete reinstall if possible.
Does anyone know why the OS is hanging at startup and how I can correct this problem?
Any suggestions will be appreciated.

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Starting W2K

by BobHo In reply to Starting W2K

The file you're talking about here is part of the registry. I don't think copying it to the root directory will do you any good.

Try this:
Boot to DOS (make sure you have access to your NTFS partition)
Go to C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\
See if the file SYSTEM.ALT is a different size or is dated differently than SYSTEM and if so, copy SYSTEM to SYSTEM.OLD.
Copy SYSTEM.ALT to SYSTEM (this is a copy of your last good registry if you have not made a backup)
Reboot and see what happens.

Letus know what happens.

DrBob:&gt

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Starting W2K

by LSP In reply to Starting W2K

I tried your proposed solution and rebooted but I got "NTLDR missing" error. Any other suggestions?

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Starting W2K

by BobHo In reply to Starting W2K

There are 3 files in c: root that are required to boot w2k. NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and BOOT.INI. Check to see if these files are there. If not, and you have a w2k boot disk, copy the files back to c. If they are then, then check the bios and make sure that c: is in your boot sequence.

Otherwise, run the w2k install and choose the Repair option. It will check for the boot files and fix/replace them if necessary.

DrBob:&gt

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Starting W2K

by LSP In reply to Starting W2K

Thanks for your help. I got sidetracked with this particular system because I had three other systems to do the same thing. I was able to copy those files to a floppy and use it to boot. I don't know why I thought about this but I checked to see if the partition that W2K was installed on was active and it was not. After setting it to active and rebooting the system came up as normal with no more problems. GO FIGURE!!!!

Thanks for your help

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Starting W2K

by LSP In reply to Starting W2K

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