How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from booting using XP PE live Disc

This article describes how to recover a Windows XP system that does not start because of corruption in the registry. This procedure does not guarantee full recovery of the system to a previous state; however, you should be able to recover data when you use this procedure.

Error messages.

Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM (or SOFTWARE)

Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate.

Boot from a PE Live XP CD and launch A43 File Management Utility and open C:\System Volume Information\_restore{D86480E3-73EF-47BC-A0EB-A81BE6EE3ED8}

There will be several folders like RP1, RP2, RP3, RP4, RP5, RP6, RP7.

These are System restore folders that containing old registry backup. Open the one just before the last numbered one, i.e. in this case RP6 and then open the Snapshot folder.

From the Snapshot folder, copy the following files to a temporary folder.

• _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM

Rename the files in the temporary folder

• Rename _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT to DEFAULT
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY to SECURITY
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE to SOFTWARE
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM to SYSTEM
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM to SAM

Then open C:\ WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG folder and rename the registry file that corrupted.

Like rename SYSTEM file into SYSTEM.OLD

Copy the missing file e.g. SYSTEM from this in to C:\ WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG folder.

That is it, restart the PC.

For more information about using traditional way to recover XP please use this link

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545