Hi, I have a computer with an IBM 60GB hard drive. I went to shut it down, and I got an error message that the WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG file was missing or damaged. I've seen these errors before. I've tried all known fixes to no avail. Here's the interesting thing... I connected the hard drive up as a slave drive to recover files from it. The computer reports the size of the drive as 0MB. I have some data recovery software which I've used in the past, and it can't even see the drive. This drive worked perfectly for two years. Obviously, something is corrupted. Does anyone have any idea why I cannot see any data at all, and that the hard drive size is mis-reported? Thanks! John O

Unfortunately it's probably dead. These drives don't have the highest reliability. Is it a Deskstar? Google "IBM deathstar" and look at the results. There were some firmware upgrades available in the past that you could try. As a last resort you can try the freezer trick but it's probably gone. Good luck, Dan

Try this or spinrite. http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Test...

Sounds like the partition info is hosed. You might want to check this out as well... http://www.ptdd.com/

Hard drive diagnostics can be downloaded from the manufacturer... see http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ I'm a fan of the following utilities for diagnostics (usually for bad sectors): http://hddguru.com/content/en/softw... http://www.hdat2.com/ If could be that your logic board is dead (see http://www.deadharddrive.com/)

Is the hdd detected in the bios, correctly ? If yes, what does Disk Management show for the hdd ? [WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG file was missing or damaged] with that error the hdd was not dead when it was removed.

The error you are getting has to do with a Registry file. It may or may not mean that you have a corrupted registry. I have repaired these kind of errors using the Repair Console. Use your XP CD to boot from. Run chkdsk /r first then run fixboot and fixmbr. This is not always successful but if it is and you are able to boot normally then the problem was on your hard drive. The reason you are getting that error is because Windows is trying to read that file and can't. The reasons for this can be many. Try the above before you give up on the HD.