HP pc recovery cmd console for fixing registry?

My HP Pavilion previously running XP Media Center Edition has been stuck in this log in/log out loop. After letting the notebook sit for some time I've done reading to see if there was a quick fix for this kind of thing. From what I gather, because the notebook was shipped with the OS from the manufacturer it makes the whole scenario different. I have not been able to log in, not as user or Admin I cannot get the recovery console to load from an xp disc safe mode does not load any differently….I am able to input user name, and password, then select log in, the box says "loading your personal settings" then abruptly changes to "saving your personal settings" and "logging off" and there I am back at the log in box, with the option to shut down or log in At one point i wondered about watching a dvd, no problems there except a dead remote battery. Put a dvd in, hit play instead of power, gives me play options, and the whole movie goes just fine. The HP website gave me some insight about F11 giving me access to PC recovery I don't think I want to do that though, I just want to fix the registry that is putting me into this loop. F11 gives me and Advanced options button though, when you select it normally it tries to destructive recovery or windows system restore or delete recovery partition. UNLESS- you are holding alt D at the time you select Advanced options All of a sudden I have a command console I have been searching for! I think…? c:\ Select X:\minint\system32\CMD.EXE is what is displayed in the toolbar x:\minit\system32> with a binking curser is what is displayed in the console, just waiting for me to make my move. That's when I resorted back to you guys. In the past I have come here for help and have received more than I could have asked for. I have felt a bit guilty though, because neither time did I finish reporting back so that everything was all full of and a solved! logo. But here I am. Please help me. I'll try my best to stick with you all the way through to the solved! part, Thanks , Clarissa

Hi Clarissa.

When you are at the x:\minit\system32> prompt, what happens if you enter chkdsk? Do you get something like this:

The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is D370_C.

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)…
66048 file records processed.

If so, please try the following:

chkdsk c: /r

This can take an hour or more to complete, but let it finish undisturbed. Report back with what if found.

Also, you said I cannot get the recovery console to load from an xp disc. What exactly happens? Do you get a Press and key to boot from CD message? If not, have you gone into BIOS setup on the Boot tab and set the CD as the first boot device, or have you tried pressing F12 when you boot, to see if you get to a boot selection screen?

What is the model of HP Pavilion you have?

When i entered chkdsk it says The type of the file system is FAT32. The volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk might report errors when no corruption is present. Volume HP_RECOVERY created 9/14/2009 12:05 AM Volume Serial Number is 3EC6-2E70 Windows is verifying files and folders… File and folder verification is complete. Windows has checked the file system and found no problems. then it lists the KB in hidden files, folders, available and bytes in each allocation unit as well as how many units there are. This only took less than 1 minute for it to be finished and report this. ? maybe less than 30 seconds even. Should I go ahead with entering the rest of the previous instructions? It is an HP Pavillion dv5237cl Entertainment Notebook PC Windows XP Media Center Edition Oh, when I tried to load the recovery console from an xp disk i would get an error that it could not find any hard disk. So, I was able to boot from the xp disk, just not run the recovery console. I only was given the option to restrart the computer at the point it gave me that error.

ok, i entered the chkdsk c: /r and now it said the type of file system is NTFS verifying files (stage 1 of 5)… file verification completed. verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)… so, I will report back when it is all finished

ok, so it verified files, indexes, security descriptors, file data, All no Problem, but stage 5 was verifying free space, it says Free space verification is complete. CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the master file table (MFT) bitmap. CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap. Windows has made corrections to the file system. 101611093 KB total disk space. 69164116 KB in 113961 files. 44232 KB in 14896 indexes. 0 KB in bad sectors. 205053 KB used by the system. 4096 KB occupied by the log file. 32197692 KB available on disk. 4096 bytes in each allocation unit. 25402773 total allocation units on disk. 8049423 allocation units available on disk. Unable to obtain a handle to the event log. x:\minint\system32> (this is not a cut/paste but me using another computer and typing what is on the screen.)

📎Photo_16.jpg 📎Photo_27.jpg

If you run chkdsk c: /r again, do the errors repeat or does it run cleanly? If clean then nothing to worry about. If it repeats then there is cause to be concerned. The best path would be to save your data, then use the F11 Recovery method to restore your system back to it's factory installed state, install all Windows Updates then restore your data.

One way to save your data is to use a Live Linux CD like Puppy Linux. Here is my spiel on saving your data.

Try booting a Linux "Live" CD like Puppy Linux or one of the other bootable CD packages like EBCD, UBCD or best of all, UBCD4WIN. See if you can access the DVD drives and USB devices that way. If yes then Windows is the culprit. If no then I'd say you have developed hardware problems.

See this post by Happyrck on GeeksToGo for Puppy Linux:
http://www.geekstogo.com/…..=findpost&am…21#entry1197721
Get the latest version available as the one he recommends is no longer easy to find.

These two are iso images you download then use your burner software to create the bootable CD from:
EBCD
Ultimate Boot CD

There were no errors when I did it the second time. i exited the console, restarted and tried logging in. Still just logged me out immediately, but it got stuck at the logging off screen which it wasn't doing before. When it would log me off before it would go right back to the log in screen. This time it took almost a minute to go back to the LOG ON TO WINDOWS screen. HP PAVILION dv5237cl Entertainment Notebook PC Window XP Media Center Edition Oh, I forgot to mention, I had tried the dvd player to see if it would work before. If i used the media controls instead of powering the computer on, I could get to the media console and watch a movie. I was even using my usb mouse because my remote battery is dead, so the usb was working properly as well as the dvd/media player. but i cannot log into windows at all.

Almost sure to be some kind of registry problem. You can try the following from the x:\minit\system32> prompt: Not sure if you can access everything, but if you can that will at least give you a chance to recover. If it doesn't work, the reason the Recovery Console is not finding your hard drive is you need to load the SATA driver for your system from a floppy disk at the "BRIEF" point where it says Press F6 to load SCSI or other drivers.

From the Recovery Console follow these instructions.

• Type c: and press Enter
• Type cd \ then press Enter
• Type cd system~1\_resto~1 then press Enter
• Type dir then press Enter
  
  When you hit enter it will list all the restore point folders like rp1, rp2 …….. If the restore points have more than one page then keep hitting the Enter key to view the last restore point folder. You will have to choose the second to last folder
• Type cd rp# (# is the second to the last restore point. Example: cd rp9, if rp9 is the second to the last restore point where the last restore point no. is 10) and press Enter
• Then type cd snapshot and press Enter
  
  Now the command prompt will look like this
  
  c:\system~1\_resto~1\rp9\snapshot
• Type copy _registry_machine_system c:\windows\system32\config\system and press Enter
• Type copy _registry_machine_software C:\windows\system32\config\software and press Enter
• Then type exit and press Enter

If you get an Access Denied error when doing the above, then do the following at the recovery console:

• Type cd \ then press Enter
• Type cd windows\system32\config then press Enter
• Type ren system system.bak then press Enter
• Type exitpress Enter

Your PC will reboot, go back into the Recovery Console and then you have access

Post back if you have any questions.