MISSING AUTOCHK.EXE skipping AUTOCHECK

I INSTALLED JV16 POWER TOOL 2008 ON MY WIFE COMPUTER (DELL DIMENSION 2400 OS
WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION)) I WAS CLEANING UP THE START UP AND I ACCIDENTLY
DISABLED THE AUTOCHK.EXE FILE. I DON'T HAVE ANY INSTALATION DISKS. I TRIED TO
BOOT UP IN THE SAFE MODE TO NO AVAIL. I KEEP COMING BACK TO THE LOG ON
SCREEN, THE BLUE SCREEN COMES UP \SYSTEMROOT\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AUTOCHK.EXE
SKIPPING AUTOCHECK. I KEEP GOING AROUND IN CIRCLES. CAN I REINSTALL THIS
FILE? MY COMPUTER IS A HP WITH WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER CAN I HOOK UP SOME
WAY TO TRANFER FILES? MY WIFE IS GOING TO KILL ME IF I DON'T FIX IT!

Please do not post in all uppercase (CAPS), it is difficult to read and
on newsgroups it is considered as shouting, we can hear you fine if you
post in mixed case and it is easier to read.

Did you try booting to the Last Known Good Configuration?

If you cannot boot to LKG you will have to edit the BootExecute value at
the Default ControlSet, the ControlSets are numbered as such:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003

The Default ControlSet is identified at the Select key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Select

The Select key typically contains values and data as shown here:

"Current"=dword:00000001
"Default"=dword:00000001
"Failed"=dword:00000000
"LastKnownGood"=dword:00000002

In the above example, the Default value identifies ControlSet001 as the
Default Set, you would need the BootExecute value at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager

The BootExecute value is a REG_MULTI_SZ string and it should only
contain the following data: autocheck autochk *

To edit the registry of the broken Windows installation you will have to
mount the drive in another Windows XP computer and use Regedit to load
the System hive of the broken installation, see here for easy to follow
instructions: http://www.rwin.ch/xp-live/regedit.htm

Thank you for your admonition concerning my use of "uppercaseing". I am
grateful for your response. I did try booting to the last known good
configuration to no avail. I will try your suggestion and hope it works (I am
just getting into computers). Thank you John John.

Good luck. In the future don't bother with registry cleaners, these
useless programs cause more harm than good.

I have basically the same problem as Deadman, however I am in need of some
clairity on how to get to the registry to edit the BootExcute value. Mine
will not get past my user window, which by the way it never displayed before
I goofed up the file system. When I click on "Owner" it loads and then
immediatly "saves my personal" settings and then logs off. It will continue
this vicious cycle unitl the cows come home. Since I don't have any cows
maybe I need to get some to stop the problem. ;) I have an HP machine running
xp home.

Have you tried booting to any of the safe mode options?

Have you tried Last Known Good Configuration?
A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222/en-us

Rather than use regedit is System Restore to a date before you "goofed
up the file system" an option?
http://bertk.mvps.org/

Hi John John. No luck. I hooked up the Dell Dimension 2400 Win XP home hard
drive to a operating computer and for all I saw the BootExecute values were
all were where they should of been at. In the process the computer I was
working with developed a blue screen error <windowsroot>\system32 hal.dll
please reinstall a copy! Is there any way I can use BartPE to fix either
computer? If not, referring to my original problem, skipping autocheck can
you breakdown the procedure of loading the hive? My best guess is that I
missed something from going back and forth from your direction to the website
you provided http://www.rwin.ch/xp-live/regedit.htm. Thank you. Happy
Holidays.

The instructions for loading the hive are about as clear as they can be
on the web link that I provided, I can't explain it any clearer than
what it is there. As for the <windowsroot>\system32 hal.dll error that
was probably brought about by your slaving the drive onto the same IDE
drive cable as the host operating system, this in turn may have led to a
change of the disk's ordinal number which in turn would lead to an
improper rdisk value in the boot.ini's ARC path, in short this may have
led to an improper Master/Slave arrangement of the disks. Try removing
the slaved disk from the computer and make sure that the host disk is in
its original location on the cable and then see if the computer will
boot properly. If you can get the computer to boot properly you can
mount the disk of the broken installation back into the host computer
but place it on the other IDE cable instead of on the same one as the
host disk, this should avoid the missing hal.dll message.

If you still cannot boot the host computer try making a floppy boot
diskette by following the instructions here

Another poster who has the same problem as you asked about this
yesterday and I gave him the following advice, you may find it to be of
help in your efforts to fix your installation:

Other than replacing registry files the only thing that you can do about
the error with the Recovery Console is verify and confirm the presence
of the Autochk.exe file in the System32 folder, if the file is missing
you can copy it from the Windows XP CD to the System32 folder.

Otherwise, to fix this error, you will have to remotely edit the Session
Manager's BootExecute value in the registry. Another way around the
problem would be to follow the instructions here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545 If you want you can do Part One
of the article then log on as per Part Two but instead of carrying
through with the rest of the instructions you can use Regedit to load
the System hive that you renamed in Part One (c:\windows\tmp\system.bak)
and then at all the numbered ControlSets in that same old hive edit the
Session Manager's BootExecute value. You can copy the BootExecuteValue
from the following location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager

to the all the numbered Control Sets in the old renamed and loaded hive:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\Session Manager
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Control\Session Manager

After you do the changes to the old System hive log back on to the
Recovery Console and reverse the changes made earlier, delete the files
in the /config folder:

delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\default

and replace them with the ones that you backed up earlier and
subsequently repaired:

copy c:\windows\tmp\system.bak c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\tmp\software.bak c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\tmp\security.bak c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\tmp\default.bak c:\windows\system32\config\default

See here for easy to follow instruction on how to load the old System
hive: http://www.rwin.ch/xp-live/regedit.htm You can also do this
without using the Recovery Console but you will have to remove the disk
from the broken machine and mount it in another Windows XP machine.

[Kheemonahs]

Hi,

I have just became a member to express my thanks to John John for his contribution here, it saved me a lot of searching for a cure for the same problem.

I was lucky enough to have access to the computer, it just kept coming up with the error on bootup.

I found the reg string completely missing from the registry, so with your info I replaced it.

Many thanks, Kheemonahs.

You're Welcome! Thanks for the feedback.