I just built my computer and I installed the full version of Win 200 pro. I have updated dated everything in the OS (IE6, SP2). After a week of use, Win 2000 will not start up. It gets to the Uploading screen and then after that shows a blue screen then restarts. The error it is shows is:

STOP: c0000218 {Registry file failure} The registry cannot load the Hive {file}: \SystemRoot\System32\Config\Software or its log or alternate. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable. Beggining dump of physical memory.

I have tried safe mode and it does the same thing as before. What would cause the hard drive all of a sudden to have a corrupt or missing file? The last program that I installed in 2000 was DX 8.1.
The hard drive was making differnet sounds than normal when I was trying to start Win 2000. Also when I turned the computer off, the hard drive made a winding sound. Maybe the hard drive is bad. However, I did reinstall Win 2000 on a different partition and on the same hard drive. So far this one is running fine. So is it my OS or Hard Drive? Any suggestions on how to fix this problem would be appreciated.
System spec:
AMD XP 1.4ghz
512 DDR crucial ram
Maxtox 7200 rpm, ATA 133
Asus A7V266-E mobo
Geforce 3 ti200
Sony cd-rom

I just encountered the same problem. I don't suppose regclean will work in dos mode!?
System
MSI board
Athlon 850
256 ram
tnt video
WD harddrive
Is there some way to replace the reg file
sysroot/system/config/software. I hope som1 can help us... my holiday vacation is being consumed with win2k load problems ;\

I found it! I found it!
ms support had a related solution for another reg file, "Error Message: Windows Could Not Start Because the Following File Is Missing or Corrupt: \Winnt\System32\Config\System.ced (Q269075)"
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q269075
So what i did is this:
i renamed software to software.old, then
i just replaced the software file with the one from c:\winnt\repair
I think, You will then need to reinstall all your programs because they are no longer in the registry file. (maybe you might be able to just reidentify their executable paths in the program menu, i don't know)
Good luck

Well, It does not necessarily work. I renamed the exiting system file and software file in the "winnt\system32\config" folder and then copied the files from "winnt\repair". I am now able to get into "SAFE" mode. I've got that bad feeling that a format and reload are going to have to be done. The link that describes the like problem is:
http://is-it-true.org/nt/nt2000/atips/atips118.shtml

IT IS WORKIMG WITH ME!!!
1- I went in recovery consol. changed to folder d:\winnt\system32\config\
2- I renamed software to software.old
3- I copied software file from d:\winnt\repair to d:\winnt\system32\config\
4- rebooted..
5- I got windows back.
Notice that copying the software class will cause some of the programs to malfunction..u would need to reinstall some of them!

WISH ALL LUCK

I've had the same problem - it happened twice. Since the first time it happened I could no longer access the net it was a bit difficult to get help. I'm afraid I ended up buying a new hard drive and installing a new version from which I copied my files from the old drive!!!!! I happened again a couple of days ago (fortunately the extra hard drive made life easier). Ok not a solution for most but I was interested to note that the first message indicated that Steve had IE6 which has been a recent update for me. I would be interested in any other info on the topic as it's a fairly major problem.

this happened to me four times in windows XP (build 2600), but it never happened to me in windows 2000 server. so i am going back to win2000. hope you guys can fix it completely. it sucks. especially couse you can't come to your data (if it's on a ntfs partition).

This has happened to me twice now. The first time, I reformatted and clean installed XP. The second time, I used the recovery console and copied the software file from the repair directory. This got me into Windows, but ALL of my programs are missing (When I go to Add/Remove programs, no installed apps are listed).

I don't know about the other Windows users, but I don't really have time to go through and reinstall my Apps every month when Windows decides it's time to mangle my filesystem again. I ran Windows 2k for a year straight with no such problems. I've read ALOT of reports of this happening on the net, but Microsoft does not seem to even acknowledge the possibility. As far as I'm concerned, this is about as serious of a bug as XP could have.

Despite all of the hopes I had had for XP and its "rock solid stability", I'm now pretty sure that its yet another Microsoft train-wreck in a long line. Perhaps Microsoft should spend a little more time making their $300 OS WORK before putting so much effort into the pretty little user interface.

I wouldn't come to this page if the problem didn't exist. Come here looking for help but apparently everyone is not sure what would solve it.

I'm sure lots of ppl out there are considering giving up on windows but just too bad there not much other option since we are sucked to it for all these years. Well thats what they strategic planning at M$. Time should be well spent on learning the os and not trying to solve its problem. Microsoft should be more responsible!

Yep This has happend to me three times. First time brand new computer went back to the manufacturer. They put in a new HDD, but I knew the disk was OK.

Mine happened after a windows update on three drivers:
K7 driver update
Epson 895 driver update
and one other I cannot remember.

So far I have not found a solution which does not involve reinstall of software. This has lost me days.

In my view Windows XP has a problem here and I'm not alone.

Jon

All the above sounds just like my problem. I have a Dell Dimension 8100 (P4 @ 1.5) that came with Win Me installed and an "upgrade" certificate for XP. Win ME worked fairly well but I got suckered by all the claims for XP's stability and made the switch when the XP upgrade arrived. MAJOR MISTAKE !! After the required BIOS upgrade, installing the XP upgrade, installing Windows "Critical Updates" package, the XP compatable versions of my apps and Norton 2002 AntiVirus, the CRASH occured!. The error screen flashed past so fast that I could not read it and finally after many attempts I was able to get a digital photo. That is when I found out about the c0000218 error reporting the problem. Dell denied any knowledge and I have reinstalled and upgraded several different times and in different configurations (both upgrade to reinstalled ME AND clean installs of XP), always with the same c0000218 crash AFTER Norton Antivirus is loaded. Symantec ALSO denies any responsibility. In any case, I have been running for over 10 days now WITHOUT AntiVirus and, so far, no problems.

This MUST be a Windows XP issue with the way certain programs are registered at install time, but not being a Microsquish engineer, I have no idea how to resolve it.

I do have a dual boot cability and have a library of spare copies of "SOFTWARE" (that I update after installing other programs) stashed in another subdirectory, so, if it does crash again, maybe I can overwrite with a known good version and not forfit the installed programs as you all have when you reinstalled "SOFTWARE" from the repair.

Will keep looking for a permanant fix.
Jerry

It is very good to har that I am not alone with this problem. My WinXP has crashed good 12 or 14 times so far! I have tried ANY possible combination. Win XP Pro on Fat32 and NTFS, WinXP Home Edition... always crashed after one week or two or even after one day!!!
What the hell causes this problem? Does anyone know???

My system has an AMD 1.3 GHz... Seems many of you, who encountered this problem have AMDs too, or? Who knows, maybe AMD is once again too fast for WinXP or so and SOFTWARE gets f*ked up :P

I'm also having troubles with the "Stop:c0000218{Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive(file):\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternative. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable"

I've installed windows 2000 three times, and I've found that the error only occurs in my system after doing a windows shutdown. I suspect that the error is the result of the shutdown process occurring too quickly on my system. Microsoft addressed a similar problem in computers running Windows 98 and Me (http://www.microsoft.com/Windows98/downloads/contents/wucritical/q273017/Default.asp)

They claim in that article that it is not a problem in Windows 2000 but I think that's bull. I'm still looking for a solution.

I have looked around and lots of people are having this problem.

It seems to be shutdown related.(cache flushing)

Best advice is disable the write cache on the HDD with the O/S installed on it.

You can do this from the
controlpanel>system>hardware>devicemanager>diskdrives options

Very very funny...

I just updated my mobo from the ABIT KT7A-RAID version 1.0 to version 1.3 with the Athlon XP hardware support (my brother got the old mobo).

As a default my Athlon XP 1800+ runs at 1050MHz, so I updated the BIOS to the latest version with support for Athlon XP 1600+ to 1900+ and configured my CPU as Athlon XP 1800+ in the BIOS.

Then it happens; I get the same error message about the SOFTWARE file.

The funny thing is that after clearing the CMOS and running my system with the default 1050MHz configuration I again able to boot normally...

I´ve tried this about 4 - 5 times now. After setting CPU as XP 1800+ the system just wont boot as the error message appears...

System is:

Abit KT7A-RAID v1.3
Quantum Fireball LM 9.1GB ATA-66
IBM 60GB GXP? ATA-100
Athlon XP 1800+
Creative GF2 GTS
Creative SB Live!
1GB SDRAM

windows "thougt it was the safest OS" 2000
Abit BIOS v.65
HPT 370/372 v.2.3?

really, really annoying, any help would be very much appreciated! :)

I had EXACTLY the same problem..

Also after what seemed a normal shutdown..When i restarted.. the system entered the scandisk..flashed an error and rebooted..This went on and on... a loop bug
The error flashed so quickly that i had to take a a picture with my camera to get a glimpse of it! (Microsoft this is ridiculous! :(... well i ended up seeing the

"Stop:c0000218{Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive(file):\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternative. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable"

replacing the SOFTWARE hive from
c:\windows\system32\config
with the one located on c:\windows\repair , made it possible to access Windows again as stated here before.. BUT all the programs, file associations, etc..are gone (although all programs still remain on the HD in their respective directories).

This as happend 2 times now.. with Windows XP build 2600, and is very VERY frustrating because i end up having to reformat every time...

Please if you find a solution let me know! Thanks

Same problem.
I have a six week old Dell Dimension 8200, P4 1.9GHz running Windows XP. It worked beautifully except for occasional run time errors which didn't seem to cause any problems other than the error messages. Two days ago after what appeared to be a normal shut down the night before, it refused to boot. The blue error screen appears too fast to read but after many attemps I've read "registry file failure" and "beginning dump of physical memory". A fellow on the Dell HELP line said this is happening frequently on systems running XP. I found an alternative way of rebuilding the registry on Microsoft's site - see "How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry that Prevents Windows XP from Starting - Q307545." This should preserve most of one's data but is rather complicated. It will probably be next week before I try it. Also note that if XP was loaded by the computer manufactuer you probably cannot log on to the recovery console using the supplied reinstallation CD and will have to download the six Windows XP setup floppies on a another computer from Microsoft - see "Cannot Log On to Recovery Console After Running Sysprep in Windows XP - Q308402". I have done this and it does work - my fancy Dell will now boot from six floppies and if I also put in the resinstall CD I can now run the recovery console. I hoped just running CHKDSK /R would fix the problem, but although it found at least one corrupt file on the C: drive the CHKDSK repair was insufficient.
AT THIS POINT I AM TOTALLY FRUSTRATED WITH MICROSOFT'S NEW STABLE OPERATING SYSTEM. For further reassurance read "You May Lose Data or Program Settings After Reinstalling, Repairing, or Upgrading Windows XP - Q312369". (The Q# documents are all found on Microsoft's free TechNet Knowledge Base. Also see Q307654 & Q314058 for how to use the recovery console.)

Somebody please find a solution for this.

218 - Magical Mystery Tour with Win2k.

I had (have?) the C0000218-Problem, too.
I found several other groups with
victims of this bug. The bug has more than
one face.
In my case, system (for god's sake) always
came back after 2 or three attempts.

I don't think the problem has neither anything to do with the used hardware
nor with the installed programs.
It has definitly something to do with
shutdown. All (good or not so good)
solutions depend on this theory.

I made the following experiments:

1. I started one of those old DOS-Applications in a BOX before shutdown.
They do not care about windows'
attempts to shutdown. A message comes up.
I wait a little and committed closing.
With these steps the system came back
correctly.

2. I found out that the probability of
starting successfully is higher when
rebooting (warm-start).

3. I think the machine is powered off by
ACPI before writing all neccessary data.

4. There was an idea to disable write cache
on the hard drive. - no affect in my case,
if you want to try it, IBM has a nice
"FeaterTool" configuring the modern disks
in many ways.
Visit http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/download.htm

All other things I know about the bug
are described on the following site:
http://www.tek-tips.com/gviewthread.cfm/lev2/67/lev3/70/pid/616/qid/86626

Solutions:
There are many tips, but I think the best one
is the registry hack by rhaick (set ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 1). Don't forget to give your pagefile a fixed size
(i.e. 1 GB).

This is not a real solution, it is based
on the same idea like my experiment
with the DOS-Box. Windows will take
a lot of time to shutdown, but writes
correctly (says theory). Anyway there
are a lot of frustrated users who encountered
the problem again after a long period of
working well.

There is a story about a
hotfix by microsoft fixing that problem
on Windows 2000 US.

It seems the hive bug occurs more often
on Windows XP Systems. Supposedly the
Borgs are working hardly on a solution ;-))

There is already a final non official
Service pack 3 for Windows 2000 US at
http://members.lycos.co.uk/wintweaks/new_page_1.htm. Maybe it solves the problem.

But I have a German Version so I'll have to wait ...