Registry error.

[zak_swan]

i'm trying to fix my mate's girfriends pc, they obviously think i know a lot more about pc's than i do.
i can't get windows to boot on any safe mode, blue screen appears
also when i use XP disc, it will only go so far then blue screen of death appears.
this is what appears,
"a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.
Registry_Error
if this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart computer. if this screen appears again follow these steps:
check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. if this is new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any windows updates you might need.
if problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software.
disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. if you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press f8 to select advanced startup options, and then select safe mode.
Technical Information stop: 0x00000051 (0x00000001, 0xE10E6008,0x0079000, 0x000001D)"
so i can't get safe mode to work or even far enough to try repair or format.
no new hardware has been installed or software.
would be grateful for any ideas on how to fix problem.

[Richard_G]

I've had this one and it isn't easy. If you have a second hard drive installed (or the hard drive is partitioned), do a fresh Windows install on the other drive. You will then be able to copy all the IE settings and mail, address book, Documents, etc from one install to the other. Then format C:, re-install again and copy everything back.

[zak_swan]

she is quite happy for me just to format and re install.
i cant do it with xp cd so i'm trying dos.
i've got dos up but cant change a: to c:
used to be just type c: but does'nt work now.

[Garibaldi]

You could boot up a live-cd so you could recover any information that was on the drive before you reformat. You could even use a live-cd to reformat as well, but the XP install should do that for you. A couple good live-cds are Knoppix and Slax, found here:
www.knoppix.net
www.slax.org

[zak_swan]

downloaded SLAX but have'nt a clue where to start with it.
here's where i am,
get blue screen of death when i try to start in safe mode and when using xp cd.
tried putting HDD on other pc as slave, but it didnt show up in repair.
have tried to format in DOS but can't figure out how to do it, DOS has changed over the years.
have been at this all day, (not unusual in PC circles i suspect)
i would just like to format HDD and reinstall, should be simple but totally stuck, so some more help would be much appreciated.

[Garibaldi]

downloaded SLAX but have'nt a clue where to start with it.
here's where i am,
get blue screen of death when i try to start in safe mode and when using xp cd.
tried putting HDD on other pc as slave, but it didnt show up in repair.
have tried to format in DOS but can't figure out how to do it, DOS has changed over the years.
have been at this all day, (not unusual in PC circles i suspect)
i would just like to format HDD and reinstall, should be simple but totally stuck, so some more help would be much appreciated.

Sure, I can help. Slax is a linux live-cd, a special distro based off of Slackware that runs off the cd, it doesn't touch your hard drive. This way you can run an OS if your hard drive gets messed up, its a great tool to keep around. Anyway, when you download the .iso file, burn it with Nero or something that burns isos. Then keep the cd in the drive and restart. You should be greated by the Slax logo... just hit enter, and it will go through the linux boot with the penguin at the top.


Once it gets to the log in screen log in as root, and password is toor. Then type gui, and KDE should start up. Once it loads it looks alot like a regular desktop. You can use Konqueror for web browsing and filebrowsing... you should be able to post from in there. Now in Konqueror click on the button on the left that looks like 3 hexagons, this will get you to devices. Then click on your hard drive and it should mount. You should now be able to see and access all your files, but you can't save anything because as of now Linux doesn't actively support NTSF writing, because it isn't stable yet. You can then go to the K menu and go to K3b (or just hold Alt-F2), which will let you burn your files to cds or dvds.

If you only have one cd drive when you first boot and see that slax logo type slax copy2ram, which will copy and run slax from your RAM so you can remove the cd and insert an cd-r. I'll be happy to help you with any other questions you have. Good luck!

[zak_swan]

can i use SLAX to format the HDD?

[Garibaldi]

can i use SLAX to format the HDD?

I'm not sure... I don't think so. If you want to do that Knoppix will do that for you. Did you get Slax up and running fine? Knoppix comes with more software, if you can't download the 700 MB iso I can try and find another suitable live-cd. Knoppix has a program called QTparted (like a free version of Partition Magic) that will let you reformat your hard drive, you may have to go with Fat32 though, at least for starters. To start Knoppix use the same procedure as slax, in KDE hold ALT-F2 and type kdesu qtparted, this will ask you for a password, just hit enter (leave it blank) and qtparted should load.

[HillJack]

i can't get windows to boot on any safe mode, blue screen appears
also when i use XP disc, it will only go so far then blue screen of death appears.

How far does it go?

What are you trying to do with the XP disc, repair an installation or...

she is quite happy for me just to format and re install.

If she is willing to format the drive, just start a new installation of XP and the installer will scan the drive for an existing installation and prompt you - just tell it a new installation.

A partition manager will appear. Delete the existing partition and re-create a new one. Tell the installer that you want it NTFS (that's the reason you can't c: to the disk now most likely - DOS doesn't read NTFS) and the installer will format the partition before it installs.

Failing all of that, get yourself a Win98 bootdisk and FDisk the drive and try again.

If you're getting the BSOD during an installation, the computer has other hardware issues that need to be dealt with. But a STOP 51 is a registry error, so Windows is having problems reading the registry from the hard drive atm.

Forget learning Linux AND learning XP installs

[Soopafresh]

I'm wondering if there's a 3rd Party Hard Disk driver that needs to be loaded ala F6.


Notwithstanding, remove all of the internal peripheral cards from the PC, except for the video card. Reseat all of the RAM.

The reason you can't see the C: drive is because you've formatted it with NTFS during the XP install. No big deal. See if pulling cards and reseating RAM permits you to install XP.

[zak_swan]

the xp installation gets as far as press f8 to accept agreement, so not very far at all.
have pulled cards and reset ram to no avail.
used the boot disc i made with xp but it is millenium and dos is different on it, microsoft like changing things.
so i will now try a win 98 boot disc and get back to you all

[zak_swan]

it's difficult to delete NTFS in DOS.
i put hard drive in other PC went to Start/Control panel/Performance and maintenance/ Administrative Tools/Computer Management and managed to format from there.

[Josef K]

it's difficult to delete NTFS in DOS.

Not really...

Boot with Win98 CD, choose start computer with CD support, CD <drive:>tools\oldmsdos, type fdisk, del partition(s), create partition(s), reboot, format.

[zak_swan]

i tried fdisk with windows 98 boot disk, it would not let me delete partition.

[Josef K]

i tried fdisk with windows 98 boot disk, it would not let me delete partition.

Well then I'd suggest a new hard drive or a low level format of your current one. Fdisk will let you perform tasks on all types of partition, certainly FAT, FAT32 and NTFS. What you say is telling me that there's something wrong with the partition table. Did you display partition information in fdisk?