Missing c:\windows\repair\system

[decwaaan]

Hi there and i hope someone can help me with this, as it has me scratching my head some what.

Next door popped round with his laptop and said it doesnt boot up anymore and showed me the screen i instantly recognised that it was 90% sure a corrupt registry file, took it off him and set about fixing it using the standard ms fix

md tmp
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak

delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\default

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

wasnt a problem i had done this all many times before or so i though, to my constination when i tried to copy from the repair file to system the file could not be found dir c:\windows\repair showed that this folder was empty (2 nothing files in there) no idea why its suppose to save when the computer first runs and save a copy of the hives

I copied the software, sam, default and security hive files back from the back ups a made but as the system was corrupt it didnt back up, it never does, but now i am missing a system hive, can anyone tell me if this file backed up anywhere else.

dont seem to be able to run a repair install either but havnt looked to hard at that option yet.

a clean install would be a disaster for this chap as he has photographes on there which are irriplacable to him, I am going to feel terrible if i have to tell him hes going to lose so many pictures of his son who died last year.

Any help would be massivly appricated (wish i hadnt answered the door tbh)

 

[Hodsocks]

In that situation I would take out the hard drive from the laptop, connect it to another machine and then copy across the data he needs to keep and then carry out reload of windows.
Sometimes I find chkdsk /r can repair the system enough for you to do a repair install, otherwise maybe try fixboot or fixmbr.

 

[decwaaan]

yeah ive tried fixboot and fixmbr, wish i had tried chkdsk before i deleted the old system file but whats done is done i suppose, guess ill have just back up the data and format

 

[DelJo63]

look in \System Volume Info\_restore{...}\snapshot\rpnn\

the system Restore Points are saved there.

you may need to use SafeBoot to Take Ownership and give access to your ADMIN account (it's normally invisible).