[Andyman_1970]

So my 'puter here at work is on the fritz (I'm currently in a different cube), this morning when I started my computer during the boot up a "dos" screen came up saying "windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \windows\system32\config\system"

I called this into our help desk and the tech is telling me the hard drive is toast.........is this correct?

 

[Silver]

So my 'puter here at work is on the fritz (I'm currently in a different cube), this morning when I started my computer during the boot up a "dos" screen came up saying "windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \windows\system32\config\system"

I called this into our help desk and the tech is telling me the hard drive is toast.........is this correct?

Maybe, but before you toss the drive, try this:

http://www.knoppix.org/

Burn a DVD of that, and try to boot with that. You'll be able to see if you have files left on the drive.

 

[syadasti]

Try F8 before it starts loading windows to load last known good configuration.

Here is an article on it

 

[Andyman_1970]

Our IT geek did a scan and says is has 2 bad boot sectors, so a new HD is on the way.

The only downside to this whole deal is the raft load of emails I saved with tons of reference material we use here that seems will be lost......

Thanks for all the input.

 

[H8R]

Our IT geek did a scan and says is has 2 bad boot sectors, so a new HD is on the way.

The only downside to this whole deal is the raft load of emails I saved with tons of reference material we use here that seems will be lost......

Thanks for all the input.

No boot sectors means you can't boot from it, but it should be able to be seen by the OS after you install a fresh drive. Have your geek install it as a secondary drive so you can go in and recover all that info.

(it'll show up as an "E" drive or something)

 

[binary visions]

No boot sectors means you can't boot from it, but it should be able to be seen by the OS after you install a fresh drive. Have your geek install it as a secondary drive so you can go in and recover all that info.

(it'll show up as an "E" drive or something)

Yep, if Windows will even attempt a boot, it means the drive is at least partly good. Shouldn't be a problem to recover everything you have on the drive unless the missing files are a result of a big corruption.