WinXP Pro with corrupt registry - unable to repair

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Hi folks,

I'm new to this forum so I hope I've started this thread in the right place and given enough detail.

I have a friends PC that crashed (blue screened) on trying to uninstall their unsuccessful attempt to install a new HP PSC 1215 All-In-One printer. The uninstall hung and I've been trying to get the PC working since this happened yesterday. ak_in_charge's solution in an earlier thread (December 03) sounds ideal as the registry looks to be corrupt. I can't load Windows (XP Pro, SP2), can't load Safe Mode (to carry out a System Restore) and even the Recovery Console freezes when I get to the point of entering various commands. The system in question is a relatively old unbranded PIII 550 MHz midi tower, with 256 MB ram and an 18 GB HDD (FAT32).

Unfortunately, after hooking up the dead drive to my own PC I found that there was no 'Windows' folder but a 'Winnt' folder instead (installer must have decided to name the folder different to the default for some reason). The 'config' folder was empty (sub folder to System32 where I expected to find the registry files) so I'm now at a loss as to what's going on here. I'm now baffled as to where the reg files should be.

Any advice would be appreciated here if possible. I've got the necessary registry files from the 'System Volume Information' folder so just need to know where to place them.

I've checked out the HDD for possible problems and it seems fine. However, the CMOS battery looks to be on it's way out (saw a checksum error). The date in the BIOS was also way out. I'll be changing the battery anyway today as a matter of course.

Any help that you or anyone could offer on this problem would be a godsend as I'm not sure what to do next.

Cheers,

Jadena.
 
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