C0000218 Registry File Error

[joe2812]

One of my flatmates is running a Dell 510m laptop and is now experiencing problems on boot up.

When booting the laptop asks for Normal Mode, Safe Mode etc, I have tried both normal and safe but neither works.

A blue screen appears which I have seen before where it dumps physical memory, but at the top it says a C0000218 Registry file -

\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE

- cannot be found or is corrupt.

In all my experience with 'the blue screen', after the memory dump it goes on to load normally, but this seems to just stop and do nothing (although we have left it running to see if it's perhaps just very slow).

A quick Google of the problem seems to suggest a reformat is in order, although an alternative is suggested, but me being me am not too clued up on reformats and playing with registries. Naturally i'm reluctant to do anything which could risk her losing her year of Uni work (I haven't asked yet but I doubt she backs up to removable storage!)

Is there any way of fixing this simply?

Can I restore from outside windows to it's state a few days ago?

Is there any way to reformat a Dell (I believe it has a built in restore of Shift + F11 - or something similar - when booting up?) without losing work?

Any help or suggestions will be much appreciated. Thanks. :ok:

[DBTL]

I'm sorry but it seems that your flatmate most likely has got a bad hard drive now. Reformat will not help. Data recovery may be possible, but specialist help will be required for it.
I've dared not to keep a record of all those Ph.D. theses, seminar works, publications, and sundry material related to the above that I've seen having been offered to the gods of the deep Hard Drive Forest, it would only make me feel like I'm banging my head against the wall all the time.

[Saab Dastard]

If there is a risk of losing important data, the most important thing at this stage is NOT TO OVERWRITE THE FILES!

Do NOT attempt to repair or re-install the O/S unless you are 100% certain of what you are doing.

You may not be able to boot from the disk, but you may still be able to read the data areas. Of course, you may run into problems with NTFS permissions, if it was an NTFS volume.

You can check the existing disk by taking it out of the laptop and either plugging it into a USB caddy, or connecting it via a converter onto an IDE channel on a desktop PC.

My suggestion in this situation is to buy a replacement hard disk, together with a USB caddy that will fit the hard disk.

Then remove the existing disk, install the replacement and make a fresh install of the O/S. Once the laptop is up and running, connect the old disk into the USB caddy and extract the data from it - assuming you can.

SD

[DBTL]

The moral of the story is (for anyone, it seems): get your school files on the USB stick (or even two sticks) -- now! No excuses. Or go Eurovision: "What's another year..."

[joe2812]

DBTL - No need to tell me! :}

Thanks for your quick responses guys. As theres a chance of data recovery i'll just tell her to get it over to a specialist to sort, just incase I do it and it goes horribly wrong.

Thanks again. :)

[DBTL]

http://www.ibasuk.co.uk/

Warning: do not approach without major $$$ .

[bjkeates]

A solution I've suggested elsewhere on these forums that's worked for me. If you have a USB stick/USB external HDD and another computer you have access to, use the other computer to download Knoppix (a free CD-bootable Linux GUI OS) and burn it to CD. Then boot your broken computer from the CD. Once in Knoppix, mount the hard drive (right click on the HDD icon on the desktop, click "mount") and you'll be able to browse it as you would in Windows.

Then plug in your USB stick (Knoppix supports hot swapping), mount that in the same way and change writing permissions to "write only" (in the same right-click menu as where you mounted it.) Then you can simply drag and drop files from your hard drive to your USB stick as you'd be able to in Windows. Once you've done that and you're satisfied you don't have anything else you don't mind losing, you can go ahead and reformat your hard drive using the supplied recovery CD.

If Knoppix won't detect the hard disk this way or you can't see or move any of the files on it, then you can probably assume the hard disk is knackered and you need a new one. These things do happen unfortunately - I've had to replace two hard drives in computers at home in the last few years simply due to wearing out.

If you need any further help using this method I'll be happy to help.

[DBTL]

NTFS file system (XP) notebook HD rescue (note: needs a system with a floppy drive; files etc refer to a 98/ME host system);
-find a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter, and connect the HD to be rescued to the secondary IDE channel;
-verify that the BIOS recognises the drive;
-check from the machine's internal Setup a.k.a. "BIOS setup" that your floppy drive is actually set bootable;
-make a bootable MS-DOS diskette;
-visit http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/NtfsDos.html and download the NTFSDOS package. After unzipping, copy the NTFSDOS.EXE file onto the diskette;
(-preferably, also copy the files XCOPY.EXE XCOPY32.EXE XCOPY32.MOD onto the diskette from c: \windows\command)
-boot with the diskette;
-run NTFSDOS at the prompt;
-the NTFS disk partition(s) will mount, hopefully;
-make a rescue directory on your C:
-enter
xcopy [your mounted NTFS drive]: c: \your_choice /s/e

The xcopy process will most likely be interrupted at some stage, if your HD is bad. The file names will contain wiggly lines (~). Good luck!

[Nobend]

Same thing happened to me recently.... a corrupted software file so no boot. I was running Win 2000 at the time.

Solved it by installing XP Pro and dual booted so I could recover all my important data. You can't run anything correctly because there's no info re any previously installed programmes in the new registry but you can access your data.

[joe2812]

Cheers guys. That's a bit too techie for me, so I just told her to give Dell a ring (who are sending her a new hard drive), and to get onto a data recovery company if theres anything she wants off the old drive.

Cheers again. :ok: