Recovery from XPHome Crash - Options?

[xexth]

Hi! My windowsxp home edition crashed after a year of use. I get a message that the windows\system32\config\system is not working or us unusable. Booted from the CD and went to the repair console - ran chdsk - it fixed some things but the system still won't start. Is there anything else I can do to repair the OS without formatting and reinstalling? BTW the computer is a Dell and comes with their version of xphome. Don't want to loose data on the drive. If I upgrade to XP Pro edition will it install over the present installation of xp home without doing a seperate installation on the drive. Also if I install xp home in a different folder how easy is it to transfer my system settings over to the new installation and would I still loose data from the old installation? The idea being that after installing a new installation and transferring the data over to the new installation I could then delete or uninstall the old one.
Thanks in advance for your help and advice.

 

[jexster]

Can you get it boot onto safe mode?

 

[NucomMat]

You need to go to recovery console and restore the regisrty. Here is a quick overview of what to do:

Start from the CD, select Repair and get to the recovery console. From the recovery console, you will need to do this:
change to the c:\Windows folder.

then: cd sytem32\config , and then press ENTER.

then: dir system , and then press ENTER.

then: ren system system.old

then: copy c:\windows\repair\system

This should get you up and running again.

Here is the KB page on it, but it has you restore the entire registry, and most times all you have to do is the specific file that is corrupt.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q307545

-Mat

 

[NucomMat]

Jexster,

Once you have a corrupt HIVE there is no way to boot into safe mode. It controls the communication between the OS and all hardware, XP is not like 9x where software can directly access hardware.

forgot to put this is my last post

-Mat