[jwizardc]

This is interesting (that's one of the nicer words). Somehow, my XP system crashed. Won't boot.
When I try to do a repair install, my old, yet perfectly legal install disk can't see it. It is a 500GB SATA disk. I am working with my backup, which seems to be similarly futzed up. On both disks, hooked up to another computer, all my files and directories seem to be present. Chkdsk shows no errors. The problem could probably be resolved if I could get to it.
When I try the recovery console. no disks, files, or directories show up. If I go farther, recovery install is not an option, installer doesn't see the partitions. It just sees something like 300GB of unallocated, unformatted space. I have not yet tried allowing it to allocate and install there, for fear that it will terminally eat my drive.
I have installed onto a small PATA drive. It, too sees the disk and all files.
I honestly believe that the problem is my original XP disk (no service packs) can't properly read the SATA hardware. {does anybody out there know if this is true?}
I am open to suggestions. This is my primary development box and I really need it.

[TheOutcaste]

An XP disk can't see a SATA drive, unless you've:

1. slipstreamed the SATA driver into a new disk
2. provided it on a floppy disk when prompted to press F6
3. or set the SATA controller in the BIOS to ATA/Compatible mode instead of AHCI mode.

Also, without at least SP1, XP can't see a partition larger than 137 GB (~128 GiB). Trying to access a partition larger than that can corrupt the drive, as it will wrap around to the start of the drive when trying to access anything beyond the 137 GB limit and could overwrite the MBR and partition table.

What error do you get when you try to boot from the hard drive?

[jwizardc]

It says:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM".

Thanks for the reply! If I had the $$$, I would probably put VII on it, but I don't. Besides, I would be HUGELY unhappy if I did that and it still didn't fix the problem, yano?

I am studying digital forensics, so I have some tools. I haven't figured it out. Obviously I have more studying to do.

-the FNG

[TheOutcaste]

Here's the MS article for this problem. Note the warning though.

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting

Warning Do not use the procedure that is described in this article if your computer has an OEM-installed operating system. The system hive on OEM installations creates passwords and user accounts that did not exist previously. If you use the procedure that is described in this article, you may not be able to log back into the recovery console to restore the original registry hives.

You can connect the drive to another PC to restore the registry directly from a restore point (if you have any of course).
This avoids any problems with using the copies of the registry in the Repair folder and eliminates the intermediate steps in the Recovery Console.

You can also use a live CD, or a Vista/Win 7 DVD or Recovery Environment (RE) CD. The Vista/Win 7 RE disks don't have Windows Explorer, but you can use the File | Open dialog from Notepad as a mini Windows Explorer. Open two copies of Notepad and you can drag and drop files between the Open dialogs.

Here's a post from a while back that goes over the steps if connected to a 2nd PC:
How to restore the registry from a System Restore point