corrupt registry

[Macaws]

Ok, My laptop is a piece of crap. The registry is now corrupt, and it won't boot, giving me the blue screen error. My Dell waranty expired, and now there is no xp support. What should I do? I can't even log in.

 

[firesteel]

Ok, My laptop is a piece of crap. The registry is now corrupt, and it won't boot, giving me the blue screen error. My Dell waranty expired, and now there is no xp support. What should I do? I can't even log in.

With the dearth of information you've supplied, it's hard to determine exactly what the problem is with your OS install.

Assuming you have correctly diagnosed a corrupted registry hive as your issue, the following link will get you back on your feet.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545

Posting the contents of the bluescreen from your laptop, would be a great start for additional assistance!

[Afterthought]

It's possible your Dell laptop has a hidden recovery partition placed there when the laptop was manufactured. This allows one to recover a failed XP installation with a pristine new installation, just as the laptop arrived from the factory.

As I recall <Ctrl> + <F11> (or possibly <Ctrl> + <F8>), pressed at boot time will bring up the Dell recovery console, if it exists. If you made any changes to the disk partition in the past, it's likely the recovery partition has been lost and the these instructions will not work.

 

[Macaws]

Thank you!

About the recovery,
I have used it before, until the Hard Drive failed. So now I don't have that, It was stored on the original hard drive.

 

[firesteel]

Bummer. Dell's recovery utility is one of their best features.

The link I posted will get you there too. I would restore one hive at a time, and see if that gets you back to a good install. System hive, reboot, then software hive, reboot. If that doesn't work, then go for the whole enchilada and restore the SAM and security hives.

Be forewarned, as soon as you restore the SAM and security hive, problems seem to grow exponentially from that point on, and restore failures are common. If that's the case, you only option is a full re-installation of Windows XP.

 

[Sharky]

Anyone able to offer the legal standpoint on downloading the Windows XP CD from questionable sources when the hardware comes with a software licence and no disc?

 

[vol7ron]

You might also want to run a scandisk to scan and fix corrupt sectors on the disk.

Anyone able to offer the legal standpoint on downloading the Windows XP CD from questionable sources when the hardware comes with a software licence and no disc?

If this is a Dell, they will send you the CDs for free (XP + Drivers + Programs/Utilities). All you have to do is call them. I've done this a number of times for the different Dells I've owned and it has come in handy after I reformatted my laptop.