Windows file system32\config\system missing or corrupted

[momof7]

I've looked over the listed topics of this problem, however, the laptop is a brand new acer aspire one mini computer that has no cd drive and came with no disks or flash drives of any kind. F8 comes up to choices of how to start the OS, but none work, it simply goes back to the same news flash telling me that the file is missing or corrupted. My daughter was listening to music and left the room to return to the computer making a horrible noise and it had a blue screen with lines of data saying "deleting......."
Any more ideas out there?

 

[corbett_1989]

Usually not the best of news when a pc starts deleting itself like that. How many days old is the laptop. Are you missing the entire system folder. When you try to load the pc up what are the error messages say? If the entire system folder is gone theres not much you can do except start over, but without a cd drive its going to be a little tricky to work with.

 

[momof7]

new

My daughter opened it christmas morning..... this is the 2nd time it has froze up. The last error was a disk/ read error..
The only error it has is that the windows could not start because the following flie is missing or corrupt:
and that I can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD_ROM. and to select r at the first screen......

I was thinking that if I could find a cd, that maybe i could attach an external cd drive, but not sure if it would read it from that..... I have 7 computers in my home and not 2 are alike and not one Windows XP cd.....
If I cant fix it, I guess I could find out if it can be sent back....hmmmm

 

[corbett_1989]

You could get an external CD Drive and try to repair it that way but without a CD its going to be a pain. You could reinstall the operating system if you could get the CD from a friend but you need the product key number if you dont want to pay micosoft another key number. Looks like you might have to send it in. If it's brand new and your getting disk/read errors already it might not be in your best interests to mess with it especially if you can take it back and get an exchange.

 

[Maya2009]

Hi!
I have a Compaq HP laptop nx9010 and also got the same "<windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe file missing or corrupt" message... although I'm not too sure if my problem is exactly the same as illustrated above.

I was doing a little research and found someone suggesting a way to fix the problem quite simply apparently I think by copying ntoskrnl.exe from the XP CD to my System32...? (I pasted the advice at the bottom of this message) but I'm pretty illiterate when it comes to computers so I couldn't understand what exactly I needed to do in order to solve this problem without loosing all my data. I want to avoid doing something which might make the problem worse!

Could anyone please help with very detailed and thorough instructions? I'd really appreciate it!

Best,
Maya

Ref:: "To fix it, just put in your original XP CD, select "R" at the recovery console, and cd to the i386 folder of the XP cd.
E:\i386\copy ntoskrnl.ex_ c:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
this should fix it most probably.
If it doesnt add another line.
E:\i386\copy pci.sy_ c:\windows\system32\drivers\pci.sys"

 

[DelJo63]

My daughter opened it christmas morning..... this is the 2nd time it has froze up. The last error was a disk/ read error..
The only error it has is that the windows could not start because the following flie is missing or corrupt:
and that I can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD_ROM. and to select r at the first screen......

I was thinking that if I could find a cd, that maybe i could attach an external cd drive, but not sure if it would read it from that..... I have 7 computers in my home and not 2 are alike and not one Windows XP cd.....
If I cant fix it, I guess I could find out if it can be sent back....hmmmm

if it was making noise, it's likely that the HD had a head crash, ie the head physically hit the disk and scratched it.

*IF* you can get into Safe Mode, run->chkdsk /f to correct (or attempt thereto) errors. Watch the progress -- as the block get correct you get notice and if it's more that one-two screens of it; sorry; it's trashed and no recovery will be sane.
Return it to the store or get an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) from the MFG.

 

[adweston]

I've looked over the listed topics of this problem, however, the laptop is a brand new acer aspire one mini computer that has no cd drive and came with no disks or flash drives of any kind. F8 comes up to choices of how to start the OS, but none work, it simply goes back to the same news flash telling me that the file is missing or corrupted. My daughter was listening to music and left the room to return to the computer making a horrible noise and it had a blue screen with lines of data saying "deleting......."
Any more ideas out there?

What it's telling you with this message is that it can't load the registry hive.

Typically, this is because of drive corruption.

Presuming your CD drive is drive D:, do the following.

Put your XP disk in the drive.
Restart your computer.
Boot off the CD
Type R to go to the Recovery Console.
It may drop you to a C: prompt right away, it may ask you to log in to a Windows install.
If it's there, choose "D:\MiniNT"
At this point you'll get a prompt
Type in chkdsk C: /r <enter>
It shouldn't ask for the autochk if you logged into the right Windows.
If it does ask for the location type in D:\i386 <enter>

Go find something to do for two hours.

When it's done it will tell you that it found and fixed one or more errors on the volume.

Type in exit <enter>

Reboot normally. If it still fails, repeat the steps.

If the chkdsk utility simply says "finished checking the volume" then you may need to use the "fixboot c:" command at the prompt.

If that fails, let me know and I'll tell you what to do next to get it booting properly again. The next step involves recovering an old copy of the registry. I'll explain that step in detail only if it's necessary. That's when we drag out the big guns.

Believe me, I do this several times a day (obviously.. I just typed that all out from memory, and I can't remember my own name half the time). There's no need at all to wipe your computer.

 

[Bobbye]

has no cd drive and came with no disks or flash drives of any kind.

Put your XP disk in the drive.

Hard to do with no disc.

 

[adweston]

Please tell me you had the foresight to buy an external DVD/RW when you bought that thing, right? Please?

If not, go buy one.. Now.

If not, the only other solution is replacing the registry hive with backups. Even still, you need an optical drive. It's too much typing for me, but there's a great tutorial on that procedure here. By far the best darn tutorial on it I've ever seen.

 

[The Fix]

Better Late Than Never

I had the exact problem Mom had here with the same Acer Note Book.

Right outta the box/music playing/weird noise/lock-up/reboot/sys 32 files missing or corrupted.....

I fixed mine in a few moments.
It takes a genius to figure this out.
I went to the Acer web site, clicked on the support tab and under the heading of "e Recovery" the following was suggested.

<snip>
The system can recover from the hidden image on the hard drive (PQService partition) or from CD/DVD media.

At the Acer splash screen, you can press Alt and F10 (at the same time you would press F2 to enter the BIOS) to bring up a DOS style version of eRecovery.</snip>

Well, the Alt/F10 trick worked like a champ. It offers you the option to restore to new condition, all your files and such will be lost but your little cheezy notebook will be just like the virgin, brand new gizmo it was when you brought it home from the store.

I make this post a little late but since this thread is popping up on a Google search of this Acer related scenario others may simplify the recovery of their notebook by reading this last post.

Note to contributers here: Your contributions to the E community are much appreciated, your personal time spent helping others is nothing short of spectacular. BUT, quit thinking so hard, life can be easy if you just think simple.....