Member Avatar for sam mustang

my windows machine wont boot...it gives me a "c:\windows\system32\config is corrupt or missing"...what can i do....

but when i slaved this drive in another machine to take out some data ...i saw something very surprising....all the data in this drive is gone and replaced by data from another drive that was connected to this drive (after i had scanned it for virus i put it back in its machine with another drive in slave position)
all data from this (slave)drive is now visible in my primary drive(the one with the corrupt error)...i am trying to get to my original data...please help....how can this be possible...the data has to be present somewhere....some system code must have been overriden by something...please help...

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

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This is a registry-hive failure (Windows can’t load the SYSTEM/SOFTWARE/SAM/SECURITY/DEFAULT hives), not just a missing file — that’s why XP shows the “C:\Windows\System32\config is corrupt or missing” message. Stop using the drive so nothing else is written; imaging the drives first is the single best precaution if the data matters. (learn.microsoft.com)

A practical order of work (safe → riskier):

  • Try chkdsk from the XP Recovery Console first — that often fixes NTFS corruption that makes the hive unreadable: boot the XP CD (or Recovery Console), press R, then run:

    chkdsk C: /r

    Repeat until no errors remain. Many experienced techs recommend this before attempting hive replacements. (learn.microsoft.com)

  • If chkdsk does not help, the documented KB method replaces the hives from the repair folder or a System Restore snapshot. From Recovery Console you can back up the current hives and copy the repair ones (this can restore bootability but may revert to the state at install time and will lose later settings). Example commands (follow the KB steps exactly): 

    md tmp
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
... (repeat for SOFTWARE, SAM, SECURITY, DEFAULT)
del c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system

    See Microsoft’s recovery steps for details and caveats. (learn.microsoft.com)

Because reports that files were “replaced” after slaving drives, do not try edits on the live disks — first make full images of each physical disk (use a Linux live USB or a rescue environment). For damaged or failing disks, use a block-imaging tool that preserves data (example: GNU ddrescue). Example:

sudo ddrescue -f -n /dev/sdX /path/to/image.img /path/to/image.log

Replace /dev/sdX and destinations as appropriate. (gnu.org)

After imaging, inspect partitions and try TestDisk to recover partition tables or PhotoRec to carve files (PhotoRec warns to avoid writing to the source disk). If the data is critical or the drives show strange overwritten content, stop and consult a professional data-recovery service rather than repeatedly writing to the disks. (cgsecurity.org)

Notes: ’s link points to a how‑to (useful background); ’s suggestion to reinstall or use a repair shop is reasonable if recovery attempts are beyond comfort level.

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Member Avatar for sam mustang

thanks..abit long but good...

Member Avatar for caperjack

thanks..abit long but good...

for such a serious problem the fixes are usually long .

Member Avatar for Ezeliek

Hey I have the same problem. What can I do ti eliminate this problem?
Thanks Ezeliek

Member Avatar for caperjack

Hey I have the same problem. What can I do ti eliminate this problem?
Thanks Ezeliek

read the link in post #2,if you don't understand that ,then take computer to repair shop ,or just reinstall windows xp if you know how to do that .

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