c0000218 unknown hard error

[drew]

blue screen with this, same blue screen comes in safe mode

theres a lot of suggestions on the net but it seems the best thing to do is reinstall os

its a dell with xp

can anyone comment or advise please

[Smeggle]

corrupted registry hive..3 options


1. insert xp cd and do a system restore at cmd
2. insert xp cd/boot and do a repair install
3. slave drive to a second machine and copy the software/security hive from the backup folder

[drew]

nice one, its my friends computer actually. ill need to find out if he has the xp disks still but ill find something alright. thanks very much

[Smeggle]

Originally Posted by drew

nice one, its my friends computer actually. ill need to find out if he has the xp disks still but ill find something alright. thanks very much

sure if ye have a second computer ye can download an iso from torrents (Which is perfectly legal btw even though Eircom block Pirate Bay and peoples access to legal files)

Using something like imageburn (Easiest, simple free iso burner) burn to a cd-rom and ye can use the existing key which should be labeled somewhere on the machine.

If ye can't see the key then ye need to load the software hive into a program like product key to get the key ( Needed if ye have to use option 2 as ye have to input key after a repair install)

To do that ye need to slave the drive to a second machine (From the broken machine) open productkey/go into the slave drive and load the hive from system32/config to get key (Load external hive in product key)

Save as text file/ repair install and use key to activate.....