Corrupted Registry Hive?

[RegistryError]

Well, last night I was trying to partition my hard drives to reinstall windows after having a few bugs/trojans on my computer... And, I go through all the options so that I believe I am booting from the CD to reinstall XP, and I get this error:

"STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load he hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SECURITY
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writeable"

I have a feeling which program caused it, but it was so long ago that I can't just simply restore the hive. I have tried everything I can think of so I can boot from the CD and I have yet to find out how to resolve this.

My current specs:

Windows XP
OS: AMD Athlon X2
RAM: 2 Gigs
Video Card: 256 MB Nvidea (Spelling)

Not sure what else is needed, but let me know and I will do my est to provide the information.


Hopefully someone here can help me with this.

 

[RegistryError]

Not sure what the policy on bumping is, if it is not allowed I'll try and take my inquires elsewhere.

 

[Celegorm]

Not sure what the policy on bumping is, if it is not allowed I'll try and take my inquires elsewhere.

Your fine on bumping. Really, we only care when it's done like every two hours.

I just want to make sure you are booting off of the CD before I look at other things. Is your BIOS set to boot off of CD first (or at least before the hard drive)? If it is (here comes the dumb question, sorry) is the CD in the computer? Finally, To boot off of the CD when Windows is already installed, you need to press any button to start the boot from the CD, are you pressing a key as it boots up to ensure it is booting from the CD?

 

[RegistryError]

Your fine on bumping. Really, we only care when it's done like every two hours.

Very cool, you never know with the way many forums operate. Some have no tolerance of bumping threads.

I just want to make sure you are booting off of the CD before I look at other things. Is your BIOS set to boot off of CD first (or at least before the hard drive)?

I believe I have it set up correctly, this is off of memory so I may be a little bit off.

In the BIOS menu, there are 3-4 options where I can boot from the hard drive, floppy, etc... May be overkill but I make sure everything is booting from the CD.

If I am doing something wrong here, I am all ears.

If it is (here comes the dumb question, sorry) is the CD in the computer? Finally, To boot off of the CD when Windows is already installed, you need to press any button to start the boot from the CD, are you pressing a key as it boots up to ensure it is booting from the CD?

Haha, dumb questions are needed in this day and age.

Anyway, the CD is in the drive and I am not 100% certain if I am booting from the CD, because I can honestly say I don't remember if I am pressing a key at the menu.

----------------
One thing I do know that happens, is if I start the recovery console to reinstall windows, it starts up normally like it is a brand new computer, then half way through the Gateway (My Desktop) screen, it goes a to a blue screen displaying the aforementioned error.

I remember a friend mentioning that my hard drive may be ruined, and/or my Windows XP CD is corrupt. What steps would I take to determine any of these?

Laslty, someone on a different forum told me I should partition the drive, and then simply reinstall XP. The problem with this is, I cannot figure out how for the life of me, to partition the drive(s).

As of now, I have all important data saved and backed up. All programs that I need to reinstall safely written down with all of their respective keys and security features. So, all I am really looking for is the easiest way to wipe the computer and basically start from scratch.


/deepbreath

Sorry for the long wall of text. :S

 

[RegistryError]

*gulp's*

Bumping, still having the same issues.

 

[Celegorm]

Don't bother with the recovery Counsol, it won't fix that.

When booting off the CD, hit "Enter" so it goes to the install windows portion. It might ask if you want to try repairing your existing windows install, you can give that a shot.

If that doesn't work, you won't have much of a choice but to re-format windows. Since you already have all your data backed up, it won't be that big of a deal. At the windows install screen where you see your hard drives, delete the partition everything is currently on (you'll need to hit a few more keys to confirm the delete). You'll then be brought back to the screen where you see your hard drives, but it will say "Unpartitioned (RAW)" then the size of your drive, press "Enter" to install windows here. It will ask if you want to do a full or quick format, I find quick is good enough 99.9% of the time, so you should be fine there. Once It's formatted, Windows will start installing.

 

[Bahawolf1]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830084/en-us

Step two shows a possible solution with the recovery console.

If that doesn't work, yes, repartitioning the drive should work.

 

[RegistryError]

Don't bother with the recovery Counsol, it won't fix that.

When booting off the CD, hit "Enter" so it goes to the install windows portion. It might ask if you want to try repairing your existing windows install, you can give that a shot.

If that doesn't work, you won't have much of a choice but to re-format windows. Since you already have all your data backed up, it won't be that big of a deal. At the windows install screen where you see your hard drives, delete the partition everything is currently on (you'll need to hit a few more keys to confirm the delete). You'll then be brought back to the screen where you see your hard drives, but it will say "Unpartitioned (RAW)" then the size of your drive, press "Enter" to install windows here. It will ask if you want to do a full or quick format, I find quick is good enough 99.9% of the time, so you should be fine there. Once It's formatted, Windows will start installing.

To confirm I am doing this right.

When in the start up, I change everything to boot form the CD, correct?

If so, when I go to boot from the CD, and press Enter so that it goes through, it boots normally and loads up how it would if it were to load up from the hard drive.

So, I am unsure if I am doing something wrong here. Any ideas?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830084/en-us

Step two shows a possible solution with the recovery console.

If that doesn't work, yes, repartitioning the drive should work.

As far as partitioning my hard drive, I'll google how to do it. Is there something that is different about partitioning than doing the step above?


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I am computer literate when it comes to fixing programs and such, but for fixing the hard drives and what not, total newb. So, I would like to thank you both for aiding me.