Real TIME problem, awiating solution

[Steady]

Greetings,

One of my clients had a server problem (NT Server 4.0 w/ SP6) today. Users had problems using the main application, Solomon (sql 7.0 driven) this afternoon. I asked the manager to reboot the system and it never came back online. I went onsite and looked at the error. Right after the OS is selected, the OS loader starts to load and then:

Disk I/O error Status = 00000001
Windows NT could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
winnt\system32\config\system

System is halted at this point.

The steps I have taken so far is loaded ERD Commander 2000, complete with SCSI drivers. I am able to see all drives, data, etc. I am not really experienced with ERD Commander but it appears to be a great tool.

Not sure what the next step is.. please help!

Much thanks,

Daniel

 

[Teq]

Well... it's telling you the winnt\system32\config\system file is either missing or corrupt. This is not a directory, it's a file with no extension.

Replace the "system" file with one from either another machine or the CD.


--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[jasen]

It's a registry hive. And taking it off of another machine will simply cause a different BSOD.
If the ERD did not work, and there is no backup of the winnt\system32 folder, you simply have to reinstall. It sucks.
I've come across this a few times, and every hack, trick, copying files hither never worked for me. Even taking that file off of another duplicate computer didn't work.
Generally this problem is caused by drivers corrupting the registry. The system hive contains hardware and driver information among other things. After fixing it, the real fun job is going to be figuring out which drivers did it, and updating/avoiding them.

 

[Teq]

OOPS... you're right it is a registry hive.

He might be able to recover by hitting F8 as soon as the loading bar appears at the bottom and then selecting "last known good configuration" from the menu...


--->It ain't better if it don't work<---