Win xp system file

If you can get it to mount at all, I would immediately back up what personal files I could. In the end, you'll likely end up reformatting the entire drive and reinstalling Windows -- which would be a challenge without the Install disk or Registration key.

Depending on the the speed of your system, the size of the volume, the amount of data on the volume and what chkdsk finds to do, it may take a long time for chkdsk with error correction to complete several to many hours or it may appear to be 'stuck'. Be patient. If the HDD light is still flashing, chkdsk is doing something so don't interrupt it. It will finish eventually one way or the other. Keep an eye on the percentage amount to be sure it is still making progress.

It may even appear to go backwards sometimes. My XP Home Edition won't boot. It crashed the other day and seems to have eaten its System file. Trying to come up with a non-destructive repair option, so I don't have to reload all my apps, which is what will happen if I run the "standard" Recovery. Have full backup, but not recent enough.

Hardware tests good. Ran comprehensive disk test from bios utility and it passed. Seagate's backup utility works, booted from a cd. Ran a full backup of the crashed disk. A couple dozen files got corrupted somewhere in the process, but everything else is good.

Once upon a time, I seem to remember you could rerun SP3 to fix a lot of problems. Have SP3 on a disk, but it's not bootable. Not sure how to mount the disk after booting from the CD, though. I've run backups with it before, too. There's a file utility that comes with Bart-PE and it can't open the drive, either.

If system files are missing or damaged, you can run Windows XP Professional Setup from the operating system CD and choose the option to repair your existing installation. In some cases, however, you might need to extract a system or startup file directly from the operating system CD. Warning If you install incorrect versions of system or startup files or if you install files to incorrect locations, your system might not operate as expected or might not start.

Use the method described in this section only if your product support representative indicates that it is necessary to manually retrieve a compressed file from your operating system CD.

If you need to replace a file in your Windows XP Professional installation, you can use the copy or expand command in Recovery Console to extract the needed file from the operating system CD.

Use the copy command unless you are extracting a file from a. When extracting a file from a. When you use Recovery Console to extract a compressed file from the operating system CD, you must use exact file names for the compressed and uncompressed files.

Table A-6 illustrates compressed and uncompressed file names. If a file is not within a. When you use the copy command to extract a file to a destination on your local disk, the file is automatically uncompressed. Source can be removable media, any directory within the System32 directory of the current Windows installation, the root of any drive, the local installation sources, or the Cmdcons folder. Destination can be any directory within the System32 directories of the current Windows installation, the root of any drive, the local installation sources, or the Cmdcons folder.

If you do not specify a destination, the command defaults to the current directory. The copy command prompts you if the destination file already exists. This small mobile printer is exactly what I need for invoicing and other jobs such as sending fellow tradesman details or step-by-step instructions that I can easily print off from my phone or the Web. Sign up here. Join the newsletter! Sign in with LinkedIn Sign in with Facebook. Keep up with the latest tech news, reviews and previews by subscribing to the Good Gear Guide newsletter.

Juha Saarinen PC World. Show Comments. Security Watch. Best NBN Plans. You must be logged on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group to be allowed to run System File Checker. Just copy the whole folder to your hard drive. Note that it'll take some MB in size, but with today's large hard drives this shouldn't be a problem.

If you didn't get a Windows CD when you purchased your computer, it is likely that this folder will already be on your hard drive.