Vaio keeps restarting - "Registry recovery..."

[Jimmy]

Hi folks,

Big problems with my PCG FR105 (Win XP).

Every time I switch it on, it reaches the blue "Welcome" screen and promptly displays a message which reads: "One of the files containing the system's registry data had to be recovered by use of a log or alternate copy. The recovery was successful."

It then restarts itself and boots up, only to for this to happen again. It's like it's stuck in a loop!

Occasionally a blue screen with writing is displayed amidst all this, but it only stays on for about a quarter of a second so I can't grasp what it's on about. It starts wih "A problem has occurred..."

I ran the product recovery CD, to discover that it can only perform a fresh install with numerous warnings about losing existing data etc. - not good when loads of my uni work is on it.

Can I do anything to get to my stuff before I format it?

Cheers in advance!

[kee-lo_]

Hi

Try doing Start -> Run and typing: sfc /scannow
This will check all the vital XP files and verify if they are official files - you might need the recovery CD so it can copy back the old files which are missing or bad.

If you can't boot up, put the recovery cd and try to boot into Windows XP's recovery console, again doing sfc /scannow

if this doesn't work then I'm afraid it's a case of trying to go into safe mode and using Spybot S&D to remove a registry hack you have got.

You could do a restore, but only have it restore the C: and put your work on 😧 and make a backup to CD-RW

[Jimmy]

Thanks Kee-Lo,

Thought I had the problem sorted out.

I managed to start Windows in safe mode, run CHKDSK and restart. Windows then said it had recovered from a serious error and all was well. Got my uni work backed up in any case...

I decided to perform a fresh install from the recovery CD anyway, just to make sure, and formatted the D drive too. I installed a couple of games and apps, then a new problem occurred -

"SMART Failure Predicted on hard disk 0: HITATCHI_DK23EA-40

WARNING: Immediately back up your data and replace you hard disk drive. A failure may be imminent."

Oh man! Is this to be believed? From what I've read on other forums this is pretty much the death knell for a HD. So if it is....how difficult is it going to be to put another one in!? I've installed CD and ZIP drives before now - is it a more complex job?


Cheers again 😞

[kee-lo_]

Hi Jimmy,

Thank god you got it backed up.
The fitting of a new hard disk shouldn't be too tough, it's just fiddly, being a small area and all that.