Recipe 20.10. Fixing Corrupted or Missing \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG ErrorsProblemYou receive an error message indicating that either \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM or \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE is missing or corrupt. SolutionUsing a command-line interface
DiscussionThe system and software files are records of the initial or latest Windows install. Overclocking your system or disk corruption can cause these files to become useless. Much like using System Restore and Last Known Good Configuration, using the original copies of the SYSTEM and SOFTWARE files will take your PC back to a previous point in time, without altering the Registry, then Windows updates these files according to the current configuration. See AlsoMS KB 307545, "How to recover from a corrupted Registry that prevents Windows XP from starting" |