Serious XP problem

Need help badly, any is appreciated.

My original problem was: "Unmountable boot Volume".

So I went to http://unmountablebootvolume.windowsreinst…xpsolution1.htm , did "CHKDSK /P" and "FIXBOOT".

Problem apparently solved, computer starts up normally, everything seems fine until I decide to restart shortly afterwards.

New problem: "Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM "

Tried "CHKDSK /P" and "FIXBOOT". Got the same error message.

Went to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us

Tried : md tmp
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak

delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\default

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system


Didn't get any further in their solution, because I fot the message "The system cannot find the file specified" after delete c:\windows\system32\config\default

I'm still staring at that now, I haven't turned the computer off out of fear that I won't be able to fix the problem if I do.

Please help!

Hi, Sorry to hear of the problems which started with the dreaded "unmountable boot volume" This problem is often cured by the steps you have taken so far, the fact that it hasn't worked is bad news. I hope you have taken copies of your important data files, settings etc and have a disc image so that you can if necessary restore your image and be up and running again within 40 minutes or so. If you haven't then its a difficult call for you, my normal recommendation would be to get your data and important stuff safely copied before you do anything else, however it looks as though you may be in the middle of Recovery Console at the moment. If you can get to a command prompt then as you have already used the chkdsk /p then you could try chkdsk /r to attempt a repair, (this could take several hours to run) and then try the bootcfg utility and then a reboot. If no joy, its time to consider using your disc image, if you haven't got a disc image, then get your data off without delay, take out your hard drive (after taking all the usual personal safety and antistatic precautions and put it as a slave drive (IDE Drive only and use the middle IDE connector) in another working computer and use this second computer's operating system to pull off the data/files etc that you need. If you are unsure how to do this, post back or use a parallel operating system disc (Knoppix, UBCD or a similar pre installed environment) and get your data off that way. I am sorry to appear gloomy (after all, after a few magic commands it may all spring back into life again) but customers often bring their computers into us for repair of this problem and usually we can get them up and running sweetly again pretty quickly, however some, fortunately a minority, end up with a format and reinstall. Make sure you have a note of the Windows installed Product Key and your Windows installation disc is handy just in case! Regards paws

Whew, I'm okay. Well, mostly okay. I was able to parallel install another copy of Windows, and everything is… more or less… back to normal. Thank goodness!