Sheikha, the Windows XP on my wife's big cheapish Toshiba laptop has crashed. Instead of the usual, the boot sequence stops on a DOS message that says Windows couldn't start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
WINDOWSSYSTEM32CONFIGSYSTEM
We can attempt to repair the file by starting Windows setup using the original setup CD-ROM.
Needless to say the disk is unfindable at present, perhaps in a shipping container in a wood outside London. My question is, can I use another Windows XP setup CD-ROM?
I know this stuff is piffling to you, but I am Private Eye's original 'shickered old hack baffled by new technology'. I can't get the person who might have the disk, and who is a software engineer, on the phone at the moment. Just in case you notice this, is there anything you can suggest, short of leaping into your nice little car and whistling down to Islington by tomorrow morning?
Naturally I am interested in anything that may come out of Surrey as well...
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you can use any xp setup cd rom to attempt repair.
The repair option should fix this ok.
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Thanks Zero. Sheikh still out of it in Blackpool perhaps.
Now I have to track down the disk along the ridge here in Islington or down by Hatton Garden...
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Then when you've got it back think about why the file may have gone missing. I'd start with a diagnostic scan of the drive which should find and remove (logically) any bad sectors. You may find the problem is larger than you think!
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Only just spotted this.
Indeed I find these problems are usualy caused by a faulty hard drive, but faulty RAM can sometimes cause these issues.
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>>The repair option should fix this ok.>>
Make sure that you choose Repair and NOT Recovery Console..:-)
Worth reading:
www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/instxprepair1.htm
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Thanks to everyone. I will pass on Stuartli's reminder to the cousin-in-law who has the computer at the moment, a software whizz. He was going to borrow the generic XP disc from some indians across the road and do his best. All he has are Dell-specific discs which he thinks may be different enough to mess the process up.
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Make sure the genric ones are legit, e.g make sure he uses your product key and not some stolen Indian key from XP Pro.
A Dell CD will work fine for installing windows and will probably activate but its not strictly legal as you will have a Toshiba OEM key not a Dell one.
Do make sure you do the hardware tests though :).
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Wed 11 Aug 10 at 00:33
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Sometimes a manufacturer specific version of windows will check the BIOS for the maufacturer ID, and not load. THis step is further down the line from booting into recovery console or repair console tho, so as Rats says andy xp disk will do for this step.
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The computer was fettled by professionals in a shop for 75 quid. They didn't find a virus. They backed up the user files (or some of them anyway), reconfigured the hard disk and put XP and everything else back, slightly mutated however.
Needless to say its personality has changed radically, as anyone's might after a major brain operation. But it works fundamentally, and is slowly being re-educated in the ways of the world. Alhamdulillah!
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 15 Aug 10 at 19:38
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You're trying Islam this week AC? What are the bank holidays like?
JH
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There are quite a few Muslim public holidays, the best-known to us infidels being Eid el Fitr marking the end of the month of Ramadan (which is very hard going for the faithful and bad for the economy as no one is supposed to eat during the hours of daylight. People get tired and bad-tempered). At the feast of Mouloud - the Prophet's birthday - horrid little boys used to chuck thunderflashes into Algiers restaurants, endangering the diners' digestions, and run off laughing. Can't help wondering whether they still do.
In 8th-century Baghdad, where there were a lot of unmolested Jews and Christians, everyone used to celebrate everyone's feasts. The Christian ones were especially popular because of all the booze.
Alhamdulillah simply means Thanks be to God in Arabic. If I had said Gott sei dank or Dieu merci would I have been accused of trying Christianity?
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 15 Aug 10 at 20:04
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I like the idea of celebrating each others bank holidays, although for us retired types every day is a bank holiday but without the crowds :-)
Yes, I know "Alhamdulillah". I was gently tugging your leg. Shinto next week perhaps?
JH
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Eid el Fitr is a great time, we have some muslim friends and you should see the amount of food consumed to mark the end of fasting.
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I went to a circumcision once. The actual cutting had already been done by a doctor but when the poor nipper, about four, saw the Imam murmuring prayers and discreetly brandishing his long curved knife he burst into tears, fearing no doubt that it was going to be done again, for real this time.
All his mature male relations crouched in a corner of the sitting room sinking large ones from a jeroboam of Johnnie Walker, red label admittedly but I was gasping, and the carphounds didn't even offer me a drink!
Perhaps they were annoyed because I had been taken there by a woman, a French agency hack. Algerians can be quite sour.
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£75 I could have got the train down to London and down it half that price init - oh wait I wouldn't have made any profit :p
That said I usualy charge about £60 for this, but I rarely just reinstall windows, I have to have a very very good reason to reinstall windows. The most common reason is rootkits. They are getting harder to remove and I usualy offer the client a choice if the rootkit is difficult to remove, £60 for a full backup and proper reinstall, or £100+ to manually remove the rootkit but I usualy try and get them go for the £60 option.
I would suggest the OP checks the version of XP matches his product key. I have seen this so many times when a dodgy computer shop has installed a dodgy copy of XP Pro even though the computer has a legit XP Home licence.
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A question for Sheikh Rattleandroll - Zero
