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Help! At wits end with Cannot find the hive file error

January 02nd, 2011 - 04:52 pm ET by D B | Report spam
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Back on Sept. 13th, I first got this error:

Stop: 0xc0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SYSTEM or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

Did a chkdsk /f, no bad sectors. Tried restoring system from a
previous restore point, still same error. Virus and malware scans
showed the system was clean. I still could boot up using Last Good
Config. One day I decided to try applying windows xp updates. Did
that and it rebooted fine. Then I did a cold boot and it booted
fine. I thought my problem was solved. Shutdown the PC, didn't turn
it on again for two weeks. But when I did, hive error again.
Everyone and their brother told me my hard drive was going bad.

For several months now I had still been able to boot up using Last
Good Config. However, the other day that stopped working, and then I
had to boot up be going into safe mode, doing a chkdsk /f and then
reboot for it to come up. I bought Norton Ghost then cleard off my
second hard drive - D: drive and copied the C: drive to it. I removed
my old C: drive and replaced it with my old D: drive, now my new C: I
booted up the PC and it booted fine. So, I shut it down and popped in
the new 1 TB drive I bought to take the place of my old D: drive. I
turned on the PC and hive file error again. I don't get it. How can
it sometimes find the hive files and sometimes not? I mean either
they are corrupt or they arent. Right? While my user account is an
adminstrator on the PC, I don't have the Adminstrator password. So,
I've been hesitant to try the recovery console. I really want to
avoid having to do a whole brand new install of XP.

I have my original hive files in the windows/repair folder. I don't
know what these files do. Could I just copy those over my current
ones or will that mess things up? I don't have any other hive files
from before my problem started other than those.
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#1 Paul
January 02nd, 2011 - 06:04 pm ET | Report spam
D B wrote:
Back on Sept. 13th, I first got this error:

Stop: 0xc0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SYSTEM or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

Did a chkdsk /f, no bad sectors. Tried restoring system from a
previous restore point, still same error. Virus and malware scans
showed the system was clean. I still could boot up using Last Good
Config. One day I decided to try applying windows xp updates. Did
that and it rebooted fine. Then I did a cold boot and it booted
fine. I thought my problem was solved. Shutdown the PC, didn't turn
it on again for two weeks. But when I did, hive error again.
Everyone and their brother told me my hard drive was going bad.

For several months now I had still been able to boot up using Last
Good Config. However, the other day that stopped working, and then I
had to boot up be going into safe mode, doing a chkdsk /f and then
reboot for it to come up. I bought Norton Ghost then cleard off my
second hard drive - D: drive and copied the C: drive to it. I removed
my old C: drive and replaced it with my old D: drive, now my new C: I
booted up the PC and it booted fine. So, I shut it down and popped in
the new 1 TB drive I bought to take the place of my old D: drive. I
turned on the PC and hive file error again. I don't get it. How can
it sometimes find the hive files and sometimes not? I mean either
they are corrupt or they arent. Right? While my user account is an
adminstrator on the PC, I don't have the Adminstrator password. So,
I've been hesitant to try the recovery console. I really want to
avoid having to do a whole brand new install of XP.

I have my original hive files in the windows/repair folder. I don't
know what these files do. Could I just copy those over my current
ones or will that mess things up? I don't have any other hive files
from before my problem started other than those.



In terms of corrupting your registry, it could be, that during
the shutdown phase, the files aren't getting flushed to disk.
Normally, a command would be issued, to flush the OS cache,
the disk controller cache (on the disk itself), out to the
platter. And then it would be safe to shutdown. Soon after that,
the PC turns off the power. If that was not completing in time,
it could result in a report of problems later.

But then, you'd probably also see reports of other file system
errors, when running CHKDSK.

Your System Restore points, have copies of your registry, And
those snapshots should be taken, while the system is healthy.
Doing a restore then, should put good copies of the registry
back on the disk. As long as you haven't turfed them, then you
might still be OK.

*******

This is an example, of recovering from a completely corrupted
registry. It relies on the copies in System Restore, to
finally repair the damage. The "empty" registry files, used
in the first step here, aren't sufficient. System Restore
puts back some copy of a "good" registry. The "empty" registry
files, are used for the first reboot, so you can get the
computer running again, and then use System Restore.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

*******

You can probably find a link, that will tell you how
to set the Administrator password.

http://kb.iu.edu/data/arni.html

Paul

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