XP system.* files

[Tacit_k]

OK so having people know you "fix" computers is a bad thing. having them call you from 150 miles away at 11:30 on a sunday night is even worse.

So I get this call and it is from a friend of a cousin of someone I know. They have a compaq laptop with "very important television scripts" on it. XP is giving the error message, and I quote "windows/winnt/system32/system file is missing or corrupt." the explatives from the file path were removed as I feel the person was just upset and there is no "MotherFing"! folder in that path. I know this may be pure ignorance on my part but isn't the Windows folder gone now? at least on clean installs from the factory. One of the reasons I do not like to get into phone support is the inability of users to accurately report what is going on. I have a general rule of not getting involved when the person is not known to me and they are hysterical about how they can not lose any data.

Anyhow the rescue disk from compaq only gives the option of reformatting.

I have yet to play much with XP but seeing as how it is just 2k with some bells whistles and a facelift. would not the system.alt file be the same as the system file? I have not had time to compare them beyond size in bits. I am just wondering if a quick rename would have been and option?

I did point out that the laptop had a cdrw and any files that are deemed too important to lose should be burned to cd atleast nightly.

[NooNoo]

this should do it

As for him not backing up? Yup, disaster waiting to happen.

[Tacit_k]

this should do it

As for him not backing up? Yup, disaster waiting to happen.

See that is the problem I had them insert the compaq recovery cd and it only gave the option of restoring the system to it's factory state ie lose all data and apps. At least that is what was told to me over the phone as I said they were 150 miles away and a bit hysterical at the time. either way one more user has learned, albeit the hard way, to back up data.

I felt sorry for the wife she was nice but her husband kept interupting her when she was speaking to me and he seemed like an A**.

Oh well it was just a curiosity to me if the files could be renamed to restor the data.

[Gabriel]

If you want to get the DATA back (assuming no format yet, or the HDD is F#$%ed up). you can connect the HDD into another machine and get the folders/documents bac easily.

Good Luck,
Gabriel

[Tacit_k]

If you want to get the DATA back (assuming no format yet, or the HDD is F#$%ed up). you can connect the HDD into another machine and get the folders/documents bac easily.

Good Luck,
Gabriel

I told them they could bring the computer to me and I would import the foriegn disk and copy the files but that was the problem I am 150 miles away. I know how to get the data it was how to solve the system file missing problem I was concerned with. Either way I was just pissed that the compaq recovery disk did not have options that a regular version of XP would offer if you insert the install disk. I would think the standard recovery console would have been somewhat important to include.