If anyone can help me out, I'd apreciate it. Running windows xp sp3 and now all of a sudden it won't boot. It gets to the windows screen and then an error pos up saying missing or corrupt "\windows\system32\config\system" . I have been searching the net and can't find much of anything except that the os needs to be reinstalled. Everything says that it will wipe the harddrive and be a fresh install. I am hoping that there is another option before losing all that data. I threw vent on my old laptop and am online waiting for help

You can try booting from your windows cd and see if REPAIR is one of the installation options, but other than that, I'm pretty sure that a complete reinstall is going to be required... If you don't want to lose all your data, (assuming you don't do backups), get a new hard drive and install windows on it... Then install your current hard drive as a slave, and set it up as your "d" drive... Then you can either copy everything over to your new drive, or just leave it. Either way, backups are your friend...

_________________


The Lord helps those who help themselves...
For everyone else, there's Democrats...

Get another hard drive if you can afford it. Put windows on that and then maybe try to retrieve your stuff from the other one afterwards.

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http://tinyurl.com/bqqrvx

Thanks for the suggestion. I do have most of my stuff backed up, but of course, not everything. I am getting a new harddrive and will see what I can salvage off the old ones. It was time for an upgrade anyway, but I don't have the cash for a new rig. I guess this is the easier way to improve things a little without laying out a bunch of money. I just didn't want to dump a bunch of money into a 5 year old computer. At least this way I can get by for a while and save up for a new rig. Thanks to everybody that helped me out last night. Hopefully this old laptop will run COD2 since I finally have a saturday night off.

New drives came in thursday. Got them installed and still the same problem. Took it into Best Buy and they looked at. They said either both rom drives are bad or the mb is bad. They said they could try to figure it out for $70. The guy said he would feel bad taking my $70 because they probably wouldn't be able to fix it and the cost of replacing parts and all that wouldn't be worth it for such an old coputer.

I have decided to bite the bullet and start looking for a new computer. I think since I have two new 250 hard drives, I might try to build a rig. Any good places to get get parts and maybe a way to make sure the parts are compatable? I have used newegg in the past and 4allmemory. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I would like to try to stay under 2g if possible, yet leave room for expansion in the future.

Newegg, TigerDirect or ZipZoomFly are ones I use

Under 2g or 2K? ($2000)? If 2K, here's a site that just build a mid-range PC for $1600.

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You're right...meant $2k. I'll check it out...

Here is what I am looking at around $2300.

Case: Thermaltake V9 tower
*Internal USB expansion
*Blue neon lighting
Processor: i7 960 (4x3.20 GHz/*MB L3 Cache)
Processor Cooling: Xigmatek Dark Knght 120 CPU Cooling Fan
Memory: 6 GB (2GB x 3) DDR3-1333, Corsair XMS3 Dominator
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5850- 1 GB (Directx 11 support, single card)
Motherboard: MSI x58 Pro-E - Intell X58 Crssfire Chipset w/ 7.1 surround, Gb LAN,Triple Channel DDR3, S-ATA Raid, Triple PCI-E
Fan Control: NZXT Sentry Fan, Clock, and Temperature Control
Power Supply: 650 Watt- Thermaltae EVO_Blue (SLI ready)
Primary Hard Drive: 300 GB Velociraptor- 16 M Cache, 10,000 rpm, 3 Gb/s
Data Hard Drive: 2x Barracuda 250 GB, 7200 rpm (already have them)
Optical Drive: LG 22x Dual Format/Double Layer DVD+-R/RW (w/ light scribe)
Network Card: Killer Xeno Pro Gaming- Networking Acceleration + Hardware Accelerated Voice
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional

I figure I'll use my old monitor, speakers, keyboard, and mouse for now to spread out the expenses. I also think I can add a sound card if I don't like the on-board sound and a second vid card if I end up wanting one. Might go down to the 150 GB HDD to save some cash since I am only planning on using 10,000 rpm drive for games. Anybody see any problems with this config or maybe some stuff to scrap? Suggestions? Looks like a week or two to get everything with normal shipping.

Thanks in advance,
SNAF

If you think you may want to go with a second Video Card some day, then you might want to consider a bigger PSU now.
Even though the one listed states it is SLI ready, some day you might get cards that like more power or want to add more drives, ect....

How big does it need to be? 750w, 850w, 1000w, or bigger? Do I need the accelerated network card or is 10/100/1000 Gb/s on the MB enough?

I wouldn't buy anything smaller than a 1000W power supply... As for the ethernet, unless you are going to pay the extra green for "business class" cable internet, with a modem that actually will use the 1000mbs from the card, you can stick with regular... Standard cable modems still use the 10/100, so accelerated 10/100/1000 is a waste in most home systems... (Although if you plan on doing a lot of LAN parties, then get the accelerated version)

_________________


The Lord helps those who help themselves...
For everyone else, there's Democrats...

Thanks for teh help everybody. Here is what I went with:

Case -(Thermaltake V9 Gaming Tower Case - Blue)
iBUYPOWER Labs - Noise Reduction(Advanced - iBUYPOWER Harmony SRS Sound Reduction System - Improved Airflow Silent Fans)
iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion(None)
Case Lighting - (Cold Cathode Neon Light - Blue)
Processor - (Intel® Core™ i7 960 Processor (4x 3.20GHz/8MB L3 Cache))
Processor Cooling - (iBUYPOWER Napoleon CPU Cooling Fan System Kit)
Memory - (6 GB [2 GB X3] DDR3-1333 Triple Memory Module - Corsair XMS3 Dominator w/DHX technology)
Video Card - (ATI Radeon HD 5770 - 1GB - Single Card)
Video Card Brand - (Major Brand Powered by ATI or NVIDIA)
Motherboard - (Asus P6T SE -- Intel X58 Chipset CrossFire Supported w/7.1 Sound, Triple-Channel DDR3, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, Triple PCI-E MB)
Power Supply - (1000 Watt -- Corsair CMPSU-1000HX Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready)
Primary Hard Drive - (300 GB WD Velociraptor HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 10000 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive)
Data Hard Drive - (2x Barracuda 250 GB, 7200 RPM)
Optical Drive - (22X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - [Lightscribe Technology] Black)
2nd Optical Drive - ([8X Blu-Ray] LG BLU-RAY Re-Writer & DVD±R/±RW Burner Combo Drive - Black)
Meter Display - (XION Color LCD Thermal Control Panel)
Sound Card - (3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard)
Network Card - (Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100))
Operating System - (Microsoft Windows 7 Professional + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ....) - 64-Bit)

Should be here in a couple weeks. Hope it works!

SNAFU

Finally got notice that the new rig is being shipped. Should be here Friday!

nice....have fun with it!