Well, like many the XP users I have the "corrupt hive" issue . . . get the message upon booting "file missing or corrupt c:\windows\system32\config\system" BUT

HERE IS THE TWIST . . . first I tried the suggestions on Microsoft site and other sites, replace the 5 hives from the "repair folder", SO I FORMATTED THE HARD DRIVE . . . YES FORMATTED, then tried to reinstall XP from the factory disk sent with my computer and guess what . . . still get the message . . . but wait I formatted the hard drive . . . how can this happen. I repeated the procedure with another XP install disk . . . still get the message.

DOES XP secretly store hives protected from being formatted? Why is this happening . . . formatting the drive should start me at ground zero. PLEASE HELP! I have spent about 100 hours stressing over this.
ryan.newman@cox.net

Formatting is not enough.... you have to format the partition where you had the operating sysem with a command that really makes all the old system files disappear.... that is Unconditional format!!!

Do it like this:

format c: /u

U means that it is Unconditional, and no files on that drive should be spared.

When you run the command format /? then you do NOT get this information, for what reason I have no idea. But it works perfectly. Once I removed Linux installation from my harddisk, formatted the partition it had been on, and the partition where the windows had been, but still there was left the LILO dual boot program.... formatted again... same result. Then I formatted with /U and it did the trick.

Under earlier versions of windows you could also format with the extention /s which stands for Systemfiles... so all systemfiles would be formatted too. And that extention did not show up in the list for extentions either (???)

Atleast it works, so go ahead and enjoy...

Is XP factory disk that you are talking
about is XP disk or just an restore setting
disk?
Try this: wipe out HDD again and
reinstall XP. I am not talking about just
format..
Wipe out including partition and reinstall
XP. I assumed you just formated so.. there
will be not much data to back up.
If this error keep occure I would suspect
that it has something to do with firmware.

Responce to Surfer:

Are you referring to use the program WIPE from IBM? It is truly an exellent tool, but it does unfortunately not support bigger disks (or partition?) than 8GB, and nowadays it is not normal to have disks smaller than 20GB on rescent and new computers.

Another thing that can be good for you newmanr: Get a hold of Partition Magic rescue disks (2 floppys) and use them to check the integrity of your hdd, and there are many other useful disktools there too.

@Trausti

I was referring to use wipe.com from IBM.
Though, there are the ways that you can
delete the partition I prefer to use wipe.
Like you said, it is truly an exellent tool.
By the way, Trausti, wipe.com supports
bigger disks than 8GB.

I was around IBM homepage only 3 weeks ago to get a copy of WIPE since it was the only thing that could save a harddisk of mine some years back. But the only version of WIPE I could find on the IBM site was with a limitation of 8GB....

@Trausti
hmmm That's pretty odd...
I just check IBM site and you were right it
only wipe up to 8GB.
I got this wipe.com back in 1999... long
time ago.
I use it all the time on 15GB HDD of mine
and always works.
Hmmmm am I missing something?

Surfer,

That was the same year I got in touch with WIPE the first time too... but my original copy is in Denmark... now I live in South America... would be interesting to see if it is the same version!

The one I got 3 weeks ago is as follows:
Size: 18,5 KB (19,007 bytes)
Size on disk: 19.0 KB (19,456 bytes)

Some of the little but good programs sometimes simply do the job even if they should not be able to.... compared with big "professional" programs.

newmanr, Pop in the xp disk and delete the exsisting partitions and conferm by typeing L or D I cant remember it will prompt you and then let the disc do a complete format and install . This will work if problam reoccurs you have bad hardware. I dealt with this issue for weeks. Turns out it was a bad motherboard
Good Luck and Take Care

Try a LOW LEVEL FORMAT, which writes the whole drive back to zero's. Making it factory certified again as i was told by Maxtor. All drive makers should have a download on their support site to get this tool. Worked great for me. Search the internet for Low Level Formating.

hi, don t just format it. use fdisk and completely delete all partitions and then create them and then format. that l do.

Hi I have installed windows xp by over writing my previous operating system which was windows 98. I want Format my hdd and clean install windows xp Do i use a Uncondional format and would this delete my BIOS settings r Just deletes my operating system?