Bubsy wrote:
> I'm running Windows XP home. The system appeared to shut down
> normally the other day. When I started it the next morning, it
> failed to go into Windows and rebooted. Chkdisk ran and said that
> the recycled folder has a non zero file size. The system then
> rebooted again. Once again it tried to check the disk and said it
> had an invalid time stamp in ms dos sts, the system rebooted, then
> same series of events and I got an error saying that hyberfil.sys
> had an error... system rebooted.
>
> I got a "STOP 0000218 registry file failure. The registry cannot
> load the hive (file)\ systemroot\ system32\config\SAM or its log or
> alternate. It is corrupt, absent or not writable"
>
> I have another bootable hard disk clone of the drive from 2008 that
> I installed replacing the existing C drive. When I started Windows,
> it said that Windows failed to start on the last attempt. I guess
> something was written to the bios because that clone drive did
> start when I tested it after making it a clone. It ran chkdisk,
> said all was fine, the rebooted. Same thing happened again and
> again. I can understand that the Windows registry files may be
> corrupt on the existing C boot drive, but why the cloned drive from
> last year wont work is beyond my comprehension.
>
> I can boot the computer with a Windows 98 emergency boot disk, go
> to a C: prompt and copy to and from the C drive and a floppy disk.
> In addition, from the DOS prompt, I'm able to view all files and
> directories on the existing C drive, and they appear to be correct.
>
> The computer booted from the Windows XP CD and I went to the
> restore console but cannot run a restore since is cannot access the
> SAM file.
>
> I have an Award V6.00PG bios.
>
> I do have a recent backup of the C drive on an external disk.
>
> Any ideas as to what might be preventing windows XP from starting?
> I cannot go into safe mode either, the computer reboots. But the
> computer accepts the Win 98 emergency boot disk and allows me to
> access my C drive. But... I cannot delete hiberfil.sys because of
> its attributes.
Use the hard disk drive diagnostic utility from the hard disk drive
maufacturer to see if the hard disk drive has failed and/or if there is some
other error (memory, cables, etc.)
Nothing was written to your BIOS. ;-)
--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
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