can someone please point me in the right direction to use windows recovery machine crashed last night and now gives me this error cannot start windows this file is missing or corrupt \windows\system32\config\system and can someone plz tell me why this happens TIA

ERRORS: missing or corrupt : \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM, or missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE, or Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry that Prevents Windows XP from Starting http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307545

cheers chuck

Here's a quick and easy fix. Just did this today (9/18/02) 1. Copy text below and save as regcopy1.txt md tmp copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak delete c:\windows\system32\config\system delete c:\windows\system32\config\software delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam delete c:\windows\system32\config\security delete c:\windows\system32\config\default copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default 2. Boot up to recovery console with your WinXP CD. 3. Insert your floppy with the txt file you created (above) on it. 4. Type copy a:\regcopy1.txt c:\windows [enter] 5. Type batch regcopy1.txt [enter] YOUR DONE!!