Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
This is the second time this has happened to me. I shut my PC down like normal, and the next day I go to turn it on, and I get the message:
STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The system cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writeable.It's so bizarre because it just pops up out of nowhere! Nothing is out of the ordinary before it happens.
Anyways, last time, I re-installed XP by booting from CD, but that's a pain because you lose all your preferences, shortcuts, etc., and all your previously-installed programs seem to vanish from the Add/Remove programs list, which is also a pain. I am not really familiar with the recovery procedures of XP, so does anyone know some things to try that might get me back on my feet? Or better yet, a way to fix this problem also so it doesn't continue occuring in the future?Thanks for any posts!
Hi, I have had exactly the same problem. It has happened 5 times to me now and I am really getting annoyed, I have came to like Windows XP more than any other operating systems, but this error is starting to make me want to go back to windows me. Please if anyone has any information on the error please help or if any one can help with the repairing Windows Utility. Thanks
0 
Are you over-clocking your system? It will
cause that sort of problem, over-clocking the FSB or the CPU...
0
Hi, i had the exact same problem. i never found a solution and ended up running windows me again. however, some very savvy people have a thread going regarding this error. Here's the link:
http://www.tek-tips.com/gviewthread.cfm/lev2/67/lev3/70/pid/616/qid/86626
Hope that helps...
Aaron
0
the problem is that windows tells the computer to shut off the power supply before the final write to the registry has taken place. what you need to do is never use the shutdown option but instead use restart and manually turn off the power while the computer is posting.
the way to fix it is to either use an emerengy rescue disk or to exchange that file with a backup version.
change the \winnt\system32\config\software file (software is a file not another directory) with one in the same directory (named software.sav) or replace it with \winnt\repair\software
this will let you boot, but you will have to reinstall some programs
0
Thanks, Tim. This worked. You're right, I had to re-install some programs, but it sure beats re-installing (again). That's the first I've heard of the power supply shutting down before all the info gets into the registry. You'd think MS would have a patch/update.
I do like XP better than ME, but I have to say that although XP locks up less often than ME, when it does crash, you're SOL. I've had XP for about a month now, and I've had to re-install the OS 4 different times. The first time I had to re-install I was pissed because I had just spent $99, and already I was dead in the water. So I decided to call the Microsoft gurus. Get this, MS doesn't have a 1-800 number for your new XP software, you have to call long distance! Then I was on hold for 60 minutes! I gave the tech chic my stop error code, she puts me on hold for a while longer, and then tells me to re-install the OS! Total BS man.
Anyway, thanks again, and take care!
James C.
Houston, TX
0
I'm getting the same thing with my XP Home edition upgrade.
Microsoft support seems clueless.
Has anyone solved this yet?
0
I'm having the same error with a new computer running an AMD XP chip at 1.4Gig. Mine is fairly consistant. Computer will run fine all day. Shut it down and next morning it's BLUE Screen's every time I boot. My problem was that I dould not see the message since the computer flashed it so fast all I could make out was "hive". Couldn't figure a way to stop the boot at that point so I took a digital picture and was finally able to get the entire message. Went to MS Support site and nothing came back for the error message. Seems if I go to SAFE mode that it will boot after that.
Has anyone else verified that the post about it shutting down too quick is the problem? Seems to make since. Maybe there is a BIOS setting for the shutdown speed.
0
See the following URL for TONS of info on this problem...
http://www.tek-tips.com/gviewthread.cfm/lev2/67/lev3/70/pid/616/qid/86626
0
This problem is driving me nutz! I did a clean install with XP and have been getting the errors if I turn off the machine over nite. Come morning, it never boots up. "Tech support" at Microsoft says it could be a hardware problem caused by magnetic interference!! God help us.
I will try shutting down manually or just putting the machine in standby mode.
When I restart by the software option, it works, and if I shut it down and restart in a few minutes it will also work. Pretty weird. Maybe the registry is not being written to fast enough by shutdown.. Makes sence.
Thanks to all and God Bless in Jesus name.
0
i have this same problem and do not know how to fix it!! PLEASE H E L P !!! thanx a million.
0
All - this is from a thread on MSoft XP newsgroups, it contains a fix that works for me. You can't be using NTFS, must use FAT32. You could perhaps use NTFS and the Recovery Console but I don't know.
Scroll down to get to the solution area.
Basically, you backup your registry files using a life saver utility. then when XP bends you over, you reboot to a DOS that accesses FAT32 and goto your backup directory and run another great util that restores your last backup. See the end for my Anti Msoft Rant. I believe this action of theirs is approaching an actionable offense. It would be very interesting to track just how many of us are having this problem !After always using a restart then turn off method and installing the latest
Go Back,
I thought I had this problem licked !Then yesterday, it happened again !
This time, I thought, OK, that's what Go Back is for. Nope, Go Back said it
couldn't
find any safe restore point (which was bogus, there were at least 50 of them
before the crash !And , since Go Back makes the drive's partition system look funky to the
world of FAT32 utilities,
I was stuck and couldn't use my previous good Hive files.Fortunately, I was able to disable Go Back, then boot with a WinME disk and
run the
ERU NT utilty and restore a recent registry backup. That fixed it (for now
!).At least now I think I have an easy and fast recovery method.
1. Use Fat32 only (sorry you NTFS fanatics, agreed it's superios but ...)
2. use the ERUNT found at: thanks to Dan W of previous msgs. This util is
a life saver !
=================
I had the same crash see this for fix Error Message: Windows Could Not Start
Because the Following File Is Missing or Corrupt:
\Winnt\System32\Config\System.ced (Q269075)Download erunt - Registry Backup and Restore for Windows NT/2000/XP
v1.0, 11/24/2001, Freeware
Written by Lars Hederer
lars.hederer@t-online.de
Look for the latest version here:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt
=================
to save your registry files regularily and save a daily copy
(or whatever fits your paranoia/repeat workload level).3. When good ole XP dumps on you, (the endless boot cycle or a hive stop
error)
reboot with a DOS disk, go to your ERUNT backup directory and run the
registry
restore program you will find in the backup dir.4. Reboot and contemplate for the 1000th time suing Microsoft for knowingly
putting
out software that is so fatally flawed. Yes, that's right, fatally flawed.
This normally
requires a reformat - reinstall. And guess what, MS has known about this
problem since
Win2K !!!! Don't you think there's an obligation to fix such a serious
error that can
cause real data loss if you're aware of the problem ? I know our end users
would
NEVER stand for our software losing their precious data files !- Paul Davidson
0
This is another post I made to same newsgroup, different thread. this is perhaps a bit more detailed in solutions.
Note that I'm no longer using Go Back, just FAT32 and the ERUNT utilities.
This post dealt with a booting loop after installing. Others report this endless boot loop occurs out of the blue. (see above posts).
===== previous postings to Msoft Forums ====
I'm guessing that there is an error msg flashing during this reboot.
and it's probably the dreaded hive file corruption problem. the screen flashes so fast (so nice of Msoft to allow us to record errors before rebooting - NOT!, down on Msoft, ABSOLUTELY ! I have always been a reasonable fan of their stuff. But this error is totatly inexcusable ! And the fact that it was introduced in Win2K and still out there is nothing short of ....
......There is a SERIOUS error in XP, and guess what, it was also there
in Win 2000 (SHAME ON MSOFT for ignoring this problem,
they claimed they couldn't duplicate it in the test labs so apparently
they chose to ignore it. I've wasted days on this issue until I found
enough info in W2K forums to understand how to fix it. Or at least
get around it.)This error (often it shows as STOP 0xC000000128) is caused by the
corruption of the registry hive files.I have a lot of detail about this if anyone wants some docs, email me and
I'll forward them.Try this, the next time you get a clean boot, do not do a shutdown.
Instead, do a restart. Then, when your PC starts to POST, turn it off.This insures that all files are properly closed.
What appears to be happening is that during a normal shutdown,
the PC is being turned off before the hives are properly written.
Thus, when the PC reboots, it has a bad SYSTEM or SOFTWARE
hive file.The easy correction is to not use NTFS, use FAT32 (I hear the moans and
cat calls already) and once your system is operational, make a good clean
copy of the hive files (in %system32%\system32\config\ They're all of the
*. files,
SYSTEM, SAM, SOFTWARE, etc....). However, you must make the copy either
by booting to DOS 7 or higher (need FAT32 access) (W98/ME version) or
booting
to a Recovery Console, otherwise the files are in use and you can't properly
copy them.Then when the machine takes a piss on you,
reboot via DOS (Win98 or ME) and copy the backups you've made back into the
config directory. Works for me. Beats the two re-installs that I did
before this.There is also a nice utility that backs up the registry for you:
ERUNT - The Emergency Recovery Utility NT
=========================================
Registry Backup and Restore for Windows NT/2000/XP
v1.0, 11/24/2001, Freeware
Written by Lars Hederer
lars.hederer@t-online.de
Look for the latest version here:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/eruntI've been using it and GoBack and the Restart method and my problems have
finally gone away.(see previous post, I've now had one failure since using this method but the repair worked just fine and since I had a very recent backup I was in OK shape !)
--
Paul Davidson
(505) 266-7424 - Fax
emats@sprintmail.com
0  |
 |
 |
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
