[117]

Ok so I have a Dell Inspiron 5150 (home edition if that helps). I turn on my laptop one night and it goes to a black screen saying

"Windows could not start because a file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
you can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original setup CD-ROM.Select ' r ' at the first screen to repair."

This really freaked me out. I don't have any sort of back-up disc or restore/recovery disk or whatever. My dad sent me this laptop in the mail and only included the mouse,charger, and internet card. I have no clue what to do so I registered here because I've heard of your guys' strong answers and I really hope you can help me. As long as its free and simple I'll do it. please help me fix my laptop

[Hughv]

Any Inspiron disk with the same OS should work, and there are lots of them out there. There's a good chance any Dell disk will work, and even any XP disk. Make a copy if you find one.
Otherwise, these disks are usually available from Dell.

[ErrorProxy]

If you have access to another computer you could search a recovery disc internetz.

[117]

Originally Posted by ErrorProxy

If you have access to another computer you could search a recovery disc internetz.

I do have access to another computer and if I find a download for one how do I know that it is safe?? How do I burn it? (reply to errorproxy)

[ErrorProxy]

Well I did some reasearch and it there seems to be a copy of the recovery disc already included in the hard drive. So...

To use PC Restore:
1 Turn on the computer. During the boot process, a blue bar with www.dell.com appears at the top of the screen.
2 Immediately upon seeing the blue bar, press <Ctrl><F11>. If you do not press <Ctrl><F11> in time, let the computer finish starting, and then restart the computer again.
NOTICE: If you do not want to proceed with PC Restore, click Reboot in the following step.
3 On the next screen that appears, click Restore.
4 On the next screen, click Confirm. The restore process takes approximately 6-10 minutes to complete.
5 When prompted, click Finish to reboot the computer.
NOTE: Do not manually shut down the computer. Click Finish and let the computer completely reboot.
6 When prompted, click Yes. The computer restarts. Because the computer is restored to its original operating state, the screens that appear, such as the End User License Agreement, are the same ones that appeared the first time the computer was turned on.
7 Click Next. The System Restore screen appears and the computer restarts.
8 After the computer restarts, click OK.

[vicks]

If you go to the dell web site, enter your service code (should be on the underside of the laptop) you should be able to get the discs from them...
Vicks

[Rollin_Again]

You can also get someone to download and burn The Ultimate Boot CD for you. Once you have it on disk you can boot from it and run the CHKDSK utility.

Regards,
Rollin

[GTechWiz]

The OP sounds like you would lose him with the boot disc idea, besides, most techs use boot disc, he might not know the command to run it, or how to access the console, we shouldn't assume the poster knows anything, obviously in this case he doesn't know how to retrieve the recovery CD from dell, so lets help him thoroughly, and not just make comments which are not helpful without explanation.

A Boot CD, like the Ultimate Boot CD, is a disc that runs a shell of windows, from the disc itself without using your hard drive, which allows you to view your hard drive / computer, repair it, run virus scans, among many other things, boot disc, by and large, are used by computer techs to repair computers that have issues like your having.

Once your in the shell of windows after booting into the boot cd, this requires you to change your boot sequence in the bios to ensure that the CD/DVD Player is the first boot device (don't sweat this is easy, you usually press delete to enter the bios set up, just remember to SAVE your changes), you can then use a simple menu (usually to the bottom left) to run different things, what you want to do to run a Check Disc, is open the Command Prompt (If it has this option, some boot CDs do not!), then type in the following command: (Assuming C: drive is where windows is installed)

chkdsk c/r

This will repair your disc should it have errors, however, this does not garauntee that it will replace missing or badly damaged files!

The FIRST Step in diagnosing MOST comptuer problems is running a virus scanner!!! (Advice from a Berkly IT Professor.) The best virus scanner, which you can download and burn to a CD is Kasperky's Recovery CD, provided you have the internet, IF you do not, then download Avira's Rescue CD (This is already updated for you). Both are 100% FREE!

Hopefully you will be able to fix your issues following these steps, becausing using a recovery CD supplied by the manufacture may not fix the issue if in fact it's a virus stopping you cold or a damaged hard drive.

When you do the Check Disk what you are looking for is Bad Sectors, if you don't have 0 in this part (at the end of the scan it show this), then you have a bad hard drive! (Not good)

Hopefully this was more helpful for you.

GTechWiz

[117]

Originally Posted by ErrorProxy

Well I did some reasearch and it there seems to be a copy of the recovery disc already included in the hard drive. So...

To use PC Restore:
1 Turn on the computer. During the boot process, a blue bar with www.dell.com appears at the top of the screen.
2 Immediately upon seeing the blue bar, press <Ctrl><F11>. If you do not press <Ctrl><F11> in time, let the computer finish starting, and then restart the computer again.
NOTICE: If you do not want to proceed with PC Restore, click Reboot in the following step.
3 On the next screen that appears, click Restore.
4 On the next screen, click Confirm. The restore process takes approximately 6-10 minutes to complete.
5 When prompted, click Finish to reboot the computer.
NOTE: Do not manually shut down the computer. Click Finish and let the computer completely reboot.
6 When prompted, click Yes. The computer restarts. Because the computer is restored to its original operating state, the screens that appear, such as the End User License Agreement, are the same ones that appeared the first time the computer was turned on.
7 Click Next. The System Restore screen appears and the computer restarts.
8 After the computer restarts, click OK.

thanks you so much prox im gonna go try this. I'll let you guys know if this works

[Rollin_Again]

Keep in mind that if you restore the PC back to its factory state you will lose all your personal files such as pics, music, emails, etc. If you want to try to resolve this issue using the method I suggested let me know and I can help you through the steps.

Regards,
Rollin