Tech: crashed pc

Subject: Tech: crashed pc
From: GUEST,fleadhman
Date: 14 Feb 05 - 03:20 PM

My home pc has crashed and I am wondering if anyone out there in Mudcat land can help. When I try to boot up I get the following message: cannot start windows because "windows 32/config/system" file is corrupt or missing. First of all can I retrieve my files and secondly is there a way of repairing this without reformatting my hard disc and reloading everything again. Is there any website where I could go to get some help on this subject.
If anyone has any ideas you could contact me at [e-mail]
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Subject: RE: Tech: crashed pc
From: MartinRyan
Date: 14 Feb 05 - 06:08 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Tech: crashed pc
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 14 Feb 05 - 06:45 PM

What for Martin?

It's the blind leading the blind here.

Subject: RE: Tech: crashed pc
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 14 Feb 05 - 06:46 PM

who eventually may muddle through but walk down blind alleys on the way.

Subject: RE: Tech: crashed pc
From: hesperis
Date: 14 Feb 05 - 07:38 PM

For that, it looks like you'd have to do a restore. That's not the same thing as a reformat but is almost MORE scary. You'd lose access to some of your programs but your data files would still exist if you do it properly. Then at least you could grab your data and then do a reformat.

Have a look at computing.net threads and see if you can find anything to help.

If it only suddenly did this, it could be a virus or a bad sector on the hard drive.

Subject: RE: Tech: crashed pc
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Feb 05 - 08:44 PM

Fleadhman -

You don't give us much to work with. Since you started posting about Oct 2001, and haven't mentioned a new computer, I'd guess you're using Win98 or better(?).

The common reasons for a report of missing or corrupted files at startup are either:
1. a drive going bad.
2. a virus had to be removed by AntiVirus, and it damaged the file.
3. you left the machine on and the cat stepped on the DEL key.
4. power got shut off while the machine was doing its shutdown and was still writing to disk.

You may also get a "file missing or corrupted" if a virus managed to write a request for the file into your Registry, but AV deleted the file it asks for. This won't normally stop Windows from getting started.

Normal procedure would be:

1. Try to boot to Windows Safe Mode. If you can get in there, you may be able to use the Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs - Fix Windows (the name here varies with which Windows) to find and replace missing or corrupted Windows file(s).

2. If you can't boot from the hard drive to Windows Safe Mode, it's possible you may be able to boot to DOS (called Command Mode in later versions of Windows) and replace the missing/damaged file.

IF your hard drive has .CAB files still on it, the missing file(s) can be extracted from them. Windows usually saves them when you install, but they often get lost or deleted. If the .CAB files are not on the hard drive, you'll need installation disks for your Windows version to get the files from.

If the machine won't boot from the hard drive to Safe Mode or to DOS Mode, you'll need a startup disk to get enough things running to make some repairs. If you don't have one, you should be able to make one from your Windows Installation disk(s), possibly by booting from the installation disk or by having someone make you one using your install disks and a working machine.

With Win98, you could sometimes just reinstall Windows on top of the existing installation. This is less likely to be successful with newer Windows versions. When a file is written to the hard drive, it has to go into an open space, or replace a file with the same name, so existing data files shouldn't be damaged. The problem is that the Windows installation won't run unless there's enough "free space" for it to fit in, even though in this case it will mostly replace existing files and won't actually need all that space. If you have an "upgrade" version, deleting too many Windows files to get it to run can prevent it from recognizing that there's a "Windows" already there.

The safest way to save existing files is to move them to some other place. Even with Win98 that can take a lot of floppies, but if you have another partition, drive, or ZIP drive, etc., you could possibly get them off the Windows drive.

Altogether, there are lots of things that can be done, but there are also a lot of "depends on" decisions needed. If you can't find a knowledgeable friend in London, who can "lay hands on" your machine, a service shop might be your best bet.

Copying data files to a CD or two** and reinstalling Windows - if you have the install disk(s)- shouldn't be too expensive, but I don't know what local rates are. With some of the shops in my area, the choice would be to let them save the files and buy a new machine already set up. (If you happen to have a later Win version that lets you use larger partitions, it can take a lot of CDs, and can get very expensive. You might want to just get a new hard drive and have the shop copy your data to it.)

** Since you've mentioned having MD, I'd guess you have a CD ROM at least?

John

Subject: RE: Tech: crashed pc
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Feb 05 - 11:26 PM

Finding someone who can put your hard drive into a different machine and make it a slave might allow you to rescue information from it. Don't format it, whatever you do. The operating system wouldn't be in control on the other machine so it won't matter if Win98 isn't working, but if you format the drive, everything is gone and you can't rescue it later.

Seems there might be some DOS applications that could still be used in Win98, but I can't think of any that would be useful. Safe Mode for Windows, like John said, sounds like your best bet.

Good luck.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: crashed pc
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 02:00 AM

If you can get into DOS mode, or boot from a DOS boot disk, you can do quite a lot, although most of the Windows fix-up utilities won't be available. If you know, for example, the exact name of the "missing file" and exactly where it needs to go, you could access .CAB files, extract the one you need, and put it in place.

DOS is certainly adequate for doing file copies from one place to another for rescuing files, although you'll probably lose the "long file names" if you've used them. (You'll likely lose some of them just making a CD backup, since the Joliet filenames you'd usually use for CDs have different rules than DOS/Windows.) There are even "recover long file names" utilities in the latest DOS (COMMAND) versions, although they're really touchy and not too reliable. If you boot from a DOS disk, you can do anything that version of DOS can do, so you could, in principle, use a different DOS version for the "repairs" than is in your Windows version. Not really recommended, though.

From the little I could glean from Fleadhman's postings, I'm guessing that the recommendation should be that he should get local help if he hopes to save existing files. I would caution that a lot of "experienced" techs may recommend an immediate reformat and reinstall. Find another tech. The disk itself may have lost structure information, and there may be little that's easily recovered; but it's likely that most of the data is still there and it's well worth looking first.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: crashed pc
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 09:35 AM

John,

It was one of those moments when a little voice, long unheard from, said "try DOS," even though I haven't used it in so long that I'd have to do some thinking about it and find a list of commands. Remember the good old days when you were writing little DOS batch files to help start your computer faster or end up where you wanted it once it was on? It is a powerful program, when you can find it. And it's still in the background of these computers. I had to call a Dell tech when we bought my kids' their computer a year and a half ago. At one point in the troubleshooting she told me what keystrokes to do to come up with the DOS screen and run a command. It was a pleasant surprise, even if the skills are so rusty as to be nonexistant.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: crashed pc
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 05:14 PM

SRS -

In later Windows versions, they don't even call it "DOS" anymore, it's just called "COMMAND." In most versions, it's at Start - Programs - Accessories - Command Prompt. I use it just enough to keep an icon/shortcut on the desktop, and I still call it DOS there.

Probably my most frequent use is to list files for bookkeeping purposes. It's rather a trivial usage, but Windows doesn't seem to give you any other easy way to do it.

DIR *.*/s>list.txt

will create the file list.txt and write a complete list of all the files (that aren't hidden ones) in whatever folder you happen to be in, including subdirectories. If it's a fairly large folder, I usually open it in Word where I can use global replacements to clean it up for whatever purpose I have in mind.

When I do a "major" backup, it's not too uncommon to burn a dozen or more CDs. I usually make a "burn" folder with a series of folders, bkp01, bkp02, etc., so I can adjust how much will go on each CD before I start burning. I'll run a *.*/s on the whole set, and put a copy on each CD, so that I can open any CD in the set and see which one to look for to find what I want.

Be aware that running a DIR with /s from a root drive can be disconcerting. One recent run on a data drive produced an 8,342 page Word document (42 MB), but it's been real handy. Word search is a whole lot quicker than Explorer's, if all you want is a filename.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: crashed pc
From: GUEST,fleadhman
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 05:53 PM

Thanks to all for the suggestions. I will try some of them and see what happens. I am using Windows XP upgraded from Windows Millennium edition.
Again thanks for all your help. I will keep you posted on the progress.

Subject: RE: Tech: crashed pc
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 06:41 PM

Yes, that's what I found, the "Command" business for DOS. At one time I used to be pretty good with it, but it has been too long. Gone the way of the Gopher and the 5 1/2" floppy disk and the 3.5" floppy disk and the original mouse. . . so many great things are now history.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: crashed pc
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 09:16 PM

SRS -

If you're using one of the newer Win versions, some of the old DOS commands have changed a little. In WinXP, Start - Help, click the Index and then you have to "flounder around" a little. The "topic title" is "New Ways to Do Things," but in typical Mickey fashion there are a good half dozen topics with that title, and it's not in the index. If you put "New Ways to Do" into the "Search" box, it should bring up a list of possibilities. Select "New ways to use tools" and it is supposed to bring up the Changes to the "Command" list. I'd suggest clicking the "Add to Favorites" star at the top if you find it and think you might ever want to refer to it again. (The Favorites list here is exclusive to Help, and it won't appear anywhere else so far as I know.) Worth a quick look just for the nostalgia.

You can get a description of any DOS command by typing the command (in a Command/Dos Window) followed by a /? before you hit enter, but you have to remember the name of the command before that helps you. I haven't found anywhere in Windows where there's a list of the DOS commands that aren't changed.

John