Registry problem?

[alintatoc]

I get this message quite often after I reset the pc or even when I turn the pc on.

[guns1inger]

I would try the following, probably in this order

1. Scandisk with surface check enabled. It will take quite a while, so be patient. Before running this I would check the event logs for disk error messages.

2. Start -> Run : type sfc /scannow to check the integrity of your current files.

3. If this fails, try a repair install of windows - process is here : http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/How-to-repair-Windows-XP-t138.html

If this is happening regularly then obviously something is wrong. It could be a disc going bad or a rogue process or simply a corrupt .dll

[alintatoc]

I would try the following, probably in this order

1. Scandisk with surface check enabled. It will take quite a while, so be patient. Before running this I would check the event logs for disk error messages.

2. Start -> Run : type sfc /scannow to check the integrity of your current files.

3. If this fails, try a repair install of windows - process is here : http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/How-to-repair-Windows-XP-t138.html

If this is happening regularly then obviously something is wrong. It could be a disc going bad or a rogue process or simply a corrupt .dll

I guess that the smartest thing to do is to reinstall windows, anyway I haven't do that in a while now.

[hech54]

I guess that the smartest thing to do is to reinstall windows, anyway I haven't do that in a while now.

Does replacing the engine in your car sound smart when it might be only the fuel filter that need replaced?

[alintatoc]

I guess that the smartest thing to do is to reinstall windows, anyway I haven't do that in a while now.

Does replacing the engine in your car sound smart when it might be only the fuel filter that need replaced?

Of course not, but anyway I am bored now because the weather is bad
By the way, how long it takes the scandisk? Where can I find this : surface check enabled?

[hech54]

If you are that bored....come and reload windows on my son's future PC.


Also try CCleaner (Crap Cleaner). It also has a registry cleaner built-in as well.

[alintatoc]

If you are that bored....come and reload windows on my son's future PC.


Also try CCleaner (Crap Cleaner). It also has a registry cleaner built-in as well.

What your address?

I will try CCleaner because I already have it on my pc.

[fritzi93]

System File Checker (sfc /scannow) takes about 15 minutes or so on this machine. Depending on the make of the computer, you may get a prompt to insert your Windows install disc. If you only have restore discs, you'll need to put the i386 folder at the root of your "C" drive and point System File Checker there. Here's how:

http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html

Good luck.

[JimmyS]

Here is procedure I have used many times in the corporate world to repair registry problems that prevented Windoze from booting (even in safe mode). In order for this technique to work, it is required that System Restore has been running in your current Windows setup. It will require a bootable environment CD/DVD such as Barts PE or (easier to make), Knoppix Linux. If you don't have either of these you will need access to a running PC to get one of them. I'll describe the Knoppix method since it only requires downloading and burning an ISO image to get the bootable environment. A good source for the Knoppix ISO files is:

http://www.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/

I am going to use the 5.1.1 version because I have not tested the latest version (6.0.1). It will probably work the same though. Download this ISO:

KNOPPIX_V5.1.0CD-2006-12-30-EN.iso

Burn the ISO image to a blank CD w. your favorite burning software. When you boot your PC from this CD, you will have a running version of Linux. This is also a great way to find out what Linux is all about if you have not been inclined to go through a complete hard drive setup of it.

After booting, close the Konqueor web browser that starts at bootup. On the desktop you should see icons for any hard drives that are installed on your PC. My drive is listed as "Hard Disk [sda1]".

You are running this OS from the CD, so the will be slight delays occassionally when doing tasks.

Click on the drive icon to open it (one click in Linux). You should see all of the same folders and files that you would see at the root of your C: drive in Windows, if not you may have the wrong drive selected. I find it easier to navigate through the contents of the drive if it is in list view.

Click on the System Volume Information folder. Then click on the folder named _restore{ ... }. The ellipses represents about a 40 or so character alpha-numeric name.

If System Restore has been working you will see a number of folders named RP##. (##) is a two digit number. Look through the list of folders and find one that has a date that was closest to the date BEFORE you started seeing the registry problem. Click on that folder. Also remember the folders date.

You will see another folder named snapshot. Click on that folder. Here are the registry backups that were collected during the restore point creation.

There are five files you will need.

_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
_REGISTRY_USER_DEFAULT

COPY these five files to the desktop. Then rename (right-click, rename) these five files to the following:
(I adhear to the case of the spelling of the files as shown below, because this is how they show in the Windows registry)

SAM
system
software
SECURITY
default

Then in the drive window, browse to the WINDOWS/system32/config directory. You will see the same files as above in here. Be careful in this directory as it is your Windows system registry. In case somthing does not work correctly with this procedure, I rename the five original files here to somthing like old-SAM, old-system etc. That way you could delete the new copies. rename the originals and you would be back to where the problem originated, ready for another try at something. I have never had an issue with this procedure though (knock on wood).

So now you should have five renamed backup registry files on the desktop and five renamed original registry files. Now, copy the five files on the desktop into the WINDOWS/system32/config directory.

Close the drive window. Click on the K menu (bottom left) button. Select Log Out... Turn off computer. Knoppix will close and PC shuts down.

Now reboot the PC into Windows. If everything was done properly, Windows should start up properly. When finished booting, do a system restore from the same date as the folder where you copied the backup reg. files from.

Your PC should be in good working order again. Good Luck!