Member Avatar for WILARD428

We had a brief power outage shutting down our computers. In an attempt to boot up my wife's computer we came up with a blue screen with the following message:
Stop:c0000218{Registry file failure}Registry cannot load the hive(file):
\systemroot\system32\config\default or its log alternative
It is corrupt,absent,or not writable.

What do I do now? I hope you can help me.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by hotmatrixx

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Good outcome — swapping back the previously working drive fixed the STOP: c0000218 registry-hive error, which matches a registry-hive load failure Windows reports when it cannot open SYSTEM/SOFTWARE/SAM/SECURITY/DEFAULT. The recovery steps others suggested (repair media, CHKDSK, System Restore) are appropriate first-line troubleshooting; because those were tried and the machine remained slow, the problem points at the disk or its controller rather than only Windows. (support.microsoft.com)

A short vendor test or a CHKDSK can return “passed” while the drive still has intermittent read/seek errors, pending sectors, or firmware problems that only appear under normal load. Manufacturer docs note a drive can test OK yet still contain corrupted data, and SMART attributes (Reallocated Sector Count, Current Pending Sector, Uncorrectable Errors) are the most useful early warning signs — check them with a SMART tool (CrystalDiskInfo, smartctl) before trusting the disk. (manuals.plus)

Actionable next step: protect data first by imaging the suspect drive to a healthy disk (do not run destructive surface repairs before imaging). GNU ddrescue is designed for this: it copies good sectors first and uses a mapfile so you can resume runs if reads fail. Example (from a Linux live USB, substitute device paths and mount points): 

ddrescue -f -n /dev/sdX /mnt/backup/drive.img /mnt/backup/drive.log
ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/sdX /mnt/backup/drive.img /mnt/backup/drive.log

If imaging is not comfortable, a data‑recovery service is the safer choice. (gnu.org)

After a successful image, run the vendor’s extended tests and review SMART. If reallocated/pending/uncorrectable counts are nonzero or extended tests fail, retire the drive — do not use it as a backup target. Vendor tools (SeaTools, WD Data Lifeguard, etc.) can help verify status, but replacement is the reliable long‑term fix; ’s caution about reusing a suspect drive is well founded. (manuals.plus)

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Member Avatar for dimsums

I assumed you are using XP from the error code, first try booting from the XP CD and then choose Repair, then run a CHKDSK on the drive, it could just be a simple case of file corruption causing the hive to died.
If that failed, you can try using something like Ubuntu to boot the system with and then manually copy out the last System-restored hives and manually replacing them but this is not as easy as it sound if you have never done this before.

Member Avatar for mjdodd

you might even try safe mode and see if you have a restore point to go back to
M

Member Avatar for benmar

it's corrupted os, try to repair using it's windows xp cd.. hope it works.

Member Avatar for WILARD428

I appreciate all you guys trying to help. I've tried most everything you've suggested to no avail. I even went to Dell and got a procedure to repair the registry and accessed the recovery console and entered all the commands. IT rebooted and it seemed the more I did the slower it got. I think that I will remove the HD and install it in an external enclosure and back up my important files on my other computer and do a clean reinstall of the OS.

Member Avatar for hotmatrixx

I appreciate all you guys trying to help. I've tried most everything you've suggested to no avail. I even went to Dell and got a procedure to repair the registry and accessed the recovery console and entered all the commands. IT rebooted and it seemed the more I did the slower it got. I think that I will remove the HD and install it in an external enclosure and back up my important files on my other computer and do a clean reinstall of the OS.

sounds like a good idea. You may not be able to access them if you have username/passwords on them. In this instance, you may be best to run BartPE to gain access to the files (you will need somewhere to save them to pre inserted into the computer, BARTPE runs from a CD)

Or I have written a little script that resets all user permissions/passwords for locked files and folders. It is still young, and has a bug or two, but will do the job. It runsbest in Win7, but still should work OK in XP now. It is the ONLY software that I know of on the internet today that does this job for free. I don't have a link, because I am still working on the bugs before I release it.

It also solves the "path too long" error, if anyone is interested.

Member Avatar for WILARD428

I thought I'd better check in and give you an update on what I have done and where I am now. I ordered a HD enclosure and installed the drive in it and plugged it into my laptop and gained access to the contents.After copying the important items to CD's I reinstalled the drive into the pc and did a clean reinstall of Windows. Did not fix the problem. The computer was so slow I couldn't do anything with it so I booted install setup again did a repair run reinstalling the files. Only slightly better. Then I remembered I had another HD that was previously installed in the pc. It was ok. I had just changed it out to this one because of the larger storage capacity. I switched them out. Problem solved! I booted up quickly. fast as new. It wasn't the OS after all. I had checked the HD using CHKDSK and Seatools bootable Iso cd and it had passed. There's just a lot I don't understand. Do you suppose that it would ok to put HD back in the external enclosure and use it for backup storage?

Member Avatar for hotmatrixx

Do you suppose that it would ok to put HD back in the external enclosure and use it for backup storage?

Throw it out.

It is good that you have run CHKDSK on it, this can help, but slow load times (seek) on a HDD mean only one thing. Impending HDD failure.

It might be interesting to download a trial copy of this program, http://disk-monitor.com/ and see what it thinks of the drive, but the truth is, your HDD is dying. If it was mine, I wouldn't use it again.

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