[Troubleshoot] xp wouldn't start on my mbp

[MaLdocK]

Hey all,

I need help with this problem which I encountered this problem this morning. I was trying to log into xp via bootcamp when it refused to start. It gave me a blank screen until i got the prompt for choosing safe mode. When i decided to start windows normally, it gave me this:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
You can attempt to repair the file by starting windows set up using the original Cd-rom
Select 'r' at first screen to repair.

I don't get it. It was fine yesterday when i used xp. I didn't do anything besides using Msn and putting it on standby.

I'm googling answers now but.. how do i get it back to normal!!???? HELPPPP

 

[LtRammstein]

Looks like a registry error occured.

Try to use the Windows CD to do a system restore. Let's hope you can get your data!

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Yup, registry. Maybe try booting again? My Mom's old Dell had a message similar to that and she just turned off and reboot.

 

[LtRammstein]

You can try booting again, but some BIOS and boot loader info is in the registry. So if the registry is messed up, you might run into more issues.

You can try to have Windows repair it, but it would be best to see if the Windows Install CD might help out with that.

Is it Boot Camp or VMWare/Parallels?

If it's Boot Camp, download a trial version of Paragon NTFS. This will give you read/write access to the drive. From here you can copy a good registry (make sure it's the same XP version) and copy it over. Plus, it'll allow you to copy your important data over to the Mac side.

If it's VMWare/Parallels, you'll have to use them for troubleshooting/diagnosis.

 

[MaLdocK]

update: I got windows up and running.. except I realized my internet and all of my programs which are on the sidebar have disappeared. The bootcamp/nVida and anti-virus are all gone!!

 

[LtRammstein]

Did it boot up normally or in safe mode?

If it's in safe mode a lot of your 3rd party apps are kinda disabled or not started.