What does it mean when your computer doesn’t start and you get a message saying “missing c:\windows\system32\config\system” or similar message

Posted on: October 6th, 2008

In a nutshell it means data corruption. Now, it usually instructs you to use the Windows CD with the repair option – however I have not seen anyone yet who succeeded with that approach. What’s the solution then?

When you get this message the best thing you can do is turn the computer off and call a technician.

I’m not saying this because I want more business. If there was a way that I could recommend for you that anybody could do and will very likely fix it, I would write it down here.

About 50% of the time this message comes up because of a failing (or failed) hard drive and getting the computer back to working condition requires replacing the hard drive, reinstalling everything (unless one has a system backup – which makes this step a piece of cake) and recovering data from the bad hard drive (unless one was smart enough to have a regular data backup – which saves them money at this step).

The another 50%, the lucky ones, is just a result of a file system mess up – usually result of unclean shutdowns. In these cases running a disk check and restoring a correct version of the corrupted file(s) will get the computer back to shape in less than 30 minutes. However this still require a technician because the tools to do it are not in common use.

If you don’t want to get caught flat-footed when this message comes up on your computer I recommend getting a system backup done and having a regular (preferably daily) data backup set up.