Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM - fixing this without the OAM disk?

Thanks, I was already using Hiren's and you are right it has a lot of very useful tools. Good Luck!

No problemo.

That one is usually easy to fix with the chkdsk  /r but there can be a few other causes - especially if there has been some other troubleshooting going on that you don't find out about until later.

If you didn't have one before, at least you have Hiren's Boot CD now and that may come in handy for you some other day.

You can also put Hiren's on a USB thumb drive for systems that have no CD/DVD drive (more copy/paste instructions):

Here's how:

I am going to recommend you use Hiren's boot CD (it will also go on a USB flash/thumb stick/drive).

This is good for you because it has many more tools on it that on the XP Recovery Console CD, does not care about your Administrator passwords and you will not have to futz around in your BIOS if any afflicted system has SATA drives - Hiren's can deal with that.

You will have a whole bunch of cool tools that you don't have in the XP Recovery Console...  a registry editor, password resetter, and a desktop that looks like Windows XP so you will feel comfortable maneuvering.

You can also easily copy your personal data (documents, images, music) to an external drive.

From a working system, first download the latest version on Hiren's Boot CD from here (it is a substantial download but worth it):

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/    (look near the bottom of the page).

Unzip the Hiren's to some folder where you can find it.  There is a Hiren's.BootCD.15.x.iso in there that you are going to need next.

Hiren's has instructions to make a bootable USB that you can use, but it requires you to first burn the .iso to a CD and some other steps, so I suggest another way and here's how:

Download RUFUS 1.4.x or whatever the latest version is from here (read some stuff on the page so you can know more about it):

http://rufus.akeo.ie/

I will caution you to be careful that you don't accidentally format any of your hard drives - be sure your USB stick is in and know what the drive letter is!  This part always makes me a little nervous, so be careful.

Launch RUFUS and all the defaults should be okay, for the Device, choose your USB drive letter, Quick format, FAT32, label it if you want to and in the Format options box, click the little icon that looks like a CD and a window will open.  Navigate that dialogue to point to the folder that contains the Hiren's.BootCD.15.x.iso that you unzipped earlier and the box should change to say ISO image (RUFUS understands the Hiren's ISO file).

Double check you have the right Device selected in the top (NOT you HDD) Click Start, acknowledge the warning and let it finish (it will take a little while) as it copies the files.   The Hiren's ISO is also good size.

When RUFUS is done, it will say 'DONE' in the bottom.

Put the USB stick in the afflicted machine and reset/reboot and press whatever key you need to press to get to a boot menu where you can select the USB as the first boot device (that is F11 for me).  If you don't see a boot menu choice, you will have to adjust your BIOS to boot from the USB first instead of the HDD.

When the Hiren's menu comes up, choose the Mini XP Mode and it will start loading (slowly from a USB drive) and eventually you should see a Windowsy looking desktop.  You should recognize that part and feel comfortable, but it is not your desktop - it is the Hiren's desktop!

Remember:  You did not boot on your hard disk - you booted into the Hiren's desktop.

Thanks for your help. I'm not sure what caused the issue as I'm a tech helping a client of mine. I decided to cut my losses and reinstall Windows. It boots fine now so thanks again for your advice. So many times in the past when I have similar issues and try 'fixes' I find myself spending more time trying this and that until I end up reinstalling which not only solves the issue but gives the client a faster cleaner machine. Thanks again for all your help.

What was the full content of the system stop message (besides dotdotdot).

I did not give you the full questionnaire about the original message but maybe that will help.

In spite of what the message says about the file being missing or corrupt, that is hardly ever the real problem.

The real problem is usually that XP just can't find the file - usually do to file system corruption.

Your NT File System (NTFS) can get corrupted from a power failure, power interruption, aborted restart, ungraceful shutdown, using the power button/switch, pressing the reset button, plug pulling, battery removal, etc.

Have any of this events occurred prior to this incident?

If the system used to work properly, what do you think happened to the system prior to this incident?

From Hiren's are you able to successfully navigate to the c:\windows\system32\config folder (that is where the registry files are located)?  If you can get into the folder, it would seem that XP should be able to get into the folder too.

Another reason for the message is an afflicted c:\boot.ini file that is telling XP to look for the files in the wrong place.

Since we know that in a single partition installation XP doesn't even need a boot.ini file to boot, from your Hiren's navigate to the c:\  folder, locate and rename the boot.ini file to something that you can remember like:

boot.xxx

Then with your c:\boot.ini file "missing" (since it has been renamed) see if the system will boot.  XP will complain about the missing file but should still boot just fine (if nothing else is wrong).

If things get worse, just rename the boot.xxx file back to boot.ini