Registry cannot load the Hive (SAM) file error... and Windows fails to boot.

I'm running Windows XP home. The system appeared to shut down normally the
other day. When I started it the next morning, it failed to go into Windows
and rebooted. Chkdisk ran and said that the recycled folder has a non zero
file size. The system then rebooted again. Once again it tried to check the
disk and said it had an invalid time stamp in ms dos sts, the system
rebooted, then same series of events and I got an error saying that
hyberfil.sys had an error... system rebooted.

I got a "STOP 0000218 registry file failure. The registry cannot load the
hive (file)\ systemroot\ system32\config\SAM or its log or alternate. It is
corrupt, absent or not writable"

I have another bootable hard disk clone of the drive from 2008 that I
installed replacing the existing C drive. When I started Windows, it said
that Windows failed to start on the last attempt. I guess something was
written to the bios because that clone drive did start when I tested it
after making it a clone. It ran chkdisk, said all was fine, the rebooted.
Same thing happened again and again. I can understand that the Windows
registry files may be corrupt on the existing C boot drive, but why the
cloned drive from last year wont work is beyond my comprehension.

I can boot the computer with a Windows 98 emergency boot disk, go to a C:
prompt and copy to and from the C drive and a floppy disk. In addition, from
the DOS prompt, I'm able to view all files and directories on the existing C
drive, and they appear to be correct.

The computer booted from the Windows XP CD and I went to the restore console
but cannot run a restore since is cannot access the SAM file.

I have an Award V6.00PG bios.

I do have a recent backup of the C drive on an external disk.

Any ideas as to what might be preventing windows XP from starting? I cannot
go into safe mode either, the computer reboots. But the computer accepts
the Win 98 emergency boot disk and allows me to access my C drive. But... I
cannot delete hiberfil.sys because of its attributes.

Use the hard disk drive diagnostic utility from the hard disk drive
maufacturer to see if the hard disk drive has failed and/or if there is some
other error (memory, cables, etc.)

Nothing was written to your BIOS. ;-)

You said you tested the clone drive last year and it worked Ok? Are
they SATA or IDE drives? I would try leaving the old drive
connected and go into the Bios and set your clone drive as first boot
device.

Yes, the cloned drive worked last year when I cloned it and booted from it.
I tried that except I disconnected the current boot drive and connected the
cloned one in its place. Windows wouldn't start, I just got reboot after
reboot. I also tried the clone drive as the boot drive on the secondary
controller with the current boot drive disconnected. Same results. The
drives are IDE drives. I'll have to get the latest WD diagnostics and run
them off a floppy or CD-R to see if there is a disk problem, but it seems
strange that I can access the boot drive via my old Windows 98 emergency
boot disk, but Windows XP wont start.

Is the computer dual booting?

you might try a "repair installation"
with the winxp.

How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry that Prevents Windows XP from
Starting
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;307545

Once you've recovered, you might want to look here, as well:

How to Troubleshoot Registry Corruption Issues
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;822705

You should also run diagnostics on your RAM, in case it is defective
and failed to properly write the registry file back to the hard drive
during the seemingly normal shutdown, and the manufacturer's
diagnostics on the hard drive, as it reported errors.

Use MemTest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/) to check the RAM, and obtain
the hard disk diagnostic utility from the manufacturer of your hard drive.

I booted from the CD ROM, went into the Recovery Console and got to the
point where it says
1: C:\Windows

which windows installation would you like to log onto?

The Recovery program then hangs. I think the problem is that the SAM file is
corrupt and I don't think the Recovery Console can run with that file
missing.

I tried running the Repair Console from the XP CD but it hangs after I
select #1 C:/Windows.
Previously I got an error message that flashed on the screen saying the SAM
hive was missing or corrupt. I don't think the Repair Console can run if
that file is missing. I have a copy of it on an external drive. It's ashamed
that XP wont just let me copy it (From a floppy?) from that external drive
to the Registry on the problem computer. Incidentally, even though I'm
using XP Home, the files are FAT 32, not NTFS because I upgraded from Win98
SE.

Recovery Console runs completely independently; the SAM file doesn't
even enter the equation.

If RC hangs, there may be something wrong with your CD, CD drive, or
RAM.

I retract my erroneous statement. And thanks for the correction.

In that case, OP should consider a Repair Install, no? I would normally
recommend the good 'ol manual System Restore, but since that needs the
RC, that ain't gonna work...

Yes it does, Daave. You need authentication to logon to the Recovery
Console, if the SAM hive is corrupt you will not be able to authenticate.

A repair install wouldn't fix it, a repair install does not change the
SAM, user names and passwords are unaffected by a repair install.

The SAM needs to be replaced by a backed up copy, there is a copy of the
SAM in the restore points, you could try one of those. You just have to
use a method other than the Recovery Console to do the replacement, you
can use a Bart PE disk or mount the drive in a USB enclosure and do it
with another Windows installation.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316751

If the drive is FAT32 then boot with a Windows 98 startup floppy and
copy the file over with the regular DOS commands. If you can copy the
file from the external drive to a floppy from another Windows
installation then you will be able to copy it from the floppy to the
System32\Config folder while booted to DOS, just rename or delete the
existing one before you replace it with the backup copy.

Thanks for the info, John. The Bart PE CD sounds like the way to go.

Thanks for all the suggestions. From what you've said, I have two
possibilites that might work. Which would you suggest trying?

I have a cloned hard disk of that drive from about a year ago. For some
reason, when I tried to get it to boot last week, it got to the "starting
windows" screen then the computer rebooted which led me to believe that I
had a bios or hardware problem because that cloned disk should boot. But
let's set that issue aside for now. Let's assume that that disk is fine and
bootable.

To make it easier, I'm going to refer to the drive that I'm having problems
with as the "SAM" drive since the missing or corrupt SAM seems to be an
issue.

I ran the WD diagnostics on the SAM drive and it passed all the
diagnostics. I'm also able to write to and copy from the SAM drive using the
Win98 emergency boot disk to load DOS and the files I copy are intact and
not corrupt. and..

I have a RECENT backup of the SAM drive to an external USB Drive. That
backup was made using Windows backup and I have separate backups for the C
drive files and the system state. so..

If I put the cloned disk on the primary controller as the master (boot)
disk, and put the SAM drive on the primary controller as the slave and.. if
the computer then boots into Windows using that cloned drive, would I be
able to use Windows backup to restore the system state from the USB drive to
the SAM drive. (In other words, is Windows Backup able to restore to a
location other than the original since in this case I'd want to restore the
system state to the D drive rather than the C drive)?
The risk here is that if something else is wrong (like a boot sector virus
or similar?) the cloned disk might now get corrupt.

As an alternative, I planned to do a reinstall of XP to the SAM drive then
restore my files from the external USB drive, but the installation disk
(which is an upgrade from 98 to XP Home) hung at "searching for a previous
version of Windows". I deleted the saved Win98 files long ago. I think I
still have the Win 98 OEM disk however so if there was someway to point to
XP home disk to the Win 98 disk (I have two CD ROM drives) I guess that
should allow Windows XP to install, and then I should be able to restore the
recent backup of the SAM drive from the external USB drive with Windows
backup.

One more thing... Each time I try to boot, checkdisk runs and finds more and
more cross linked files. It sounds like something is messing with the
existing file structure and messing them up. Is it OK to run a previous
version of Scandisk (the one that is on the Win98 emergency boot disk) to
check the SAM drive and repair it?

Two things I regret
1. Not spending the extra $100 to upgrade to XP Professional instead of XP
Home which an IT tech friend of mine tells me is much better than Home. and

2. Not converting from FAT32 to NTFS when I did the Win98 to XP Home
upgrade.

as a side note, I removed and reinserted the memory DIMS or whatever they
were called years ago. Memory and BIOS seem to be behaving normally.

thanks,

What is the exact message you get?

Missing or corrupt messages at start up do not necessarily mean the
file is really missing or corrupt.

Usually, missing or corrupt messages at boot time really just means
that Windows cannot locate the file because something else is wrong.
The something else is usually quite simple to resolve.

Just like a message that hal.dll is missing or corrupt does not mean
hal.dll is really missing, but unfortunately when folks see that
message they start wasting a lot of time trying to replace the hal.dll
when that is not the problem at all.

Why don't you just boot the XP Recovery Console (make a bootable CD if
you don't have one), run chkdsk /r (works with FAT32 or NTFS),
determine if the SAM file is really missing or not, if it is missing
or even suspicious then just replace it and all of your registry files
(replace the 5 files as a group) with the probably tens of others
already on your HDD, reboot, fix remaining problems.

Just what is a manual system restore?

Are you of the belief that the end result of executing KB307545 and
System Restore from the GUI will be the same?

Bubsy, try this if you can connect your drive to another computer. This has
saved my butt more than a few times.

First, go to Windows Explorer>Tools>Folder Options>View. Check " Show hidden
files and folders". Uncheck " Hide protected

Operating System files". Then go to X:\System Volume
Information\restore\RPfolder\Snapshot Folder. X=Your drive RPFolder will be
numbered ie: RP1. Copy the first five files after

the Repository Folder. Then go to X:\Windows\System32\Config Folder. When
Config folder is open create a new folder. Then

move SYSTEM, SOFTWARE, SAM, DEFAULT and SECURITY files that already exist
there to new folder. Now paste the five files you copied from

Snapshot Folder. Rename each file by removing REGISTRY_MACHINE_ from each
file. You should now have a recent working

Registry. Recent being keyword. If you used the five files in the Repair
Folder it will put you back to the registrys original state when first
installed.

Note: Usually you will see a few if not many RP folders. Choose the Fifth
most recent. So if your most recent RP Folder is

numbered RP20 then choose RP15 to select the registry files.

Ok, to sum up all you are doing is first making the System Volume
Information folder visible. ( Unhidden ). Next navigate to the Snapshot
folder and copy the five files ( REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM, SAM, SOFTWARE,
DEFAULT and SECURITY. Then navigate to the Config Folder and while there
create a new folder and move the SYSTEM, SAM, SOFTWARE, DEFAULT and
SECURITY files that

already exist there

to new folder. Then paste the copied files into the Config Folder. Remove
the REGISTRY_MACHINE_ from each file. You now have a recent working
registry.

Over the holidays, I'll have access to another computer and I'll try this. I
might be able to do it sooner by using the Win98 emergency boot disk and DOS
commands but it'll be really complicated.

I brought another computer home and followed your steps. When I started the
computer, it ran checkdisk, found tons of crosslinked files, and got stuck.
I shut it down and rebooted. This time it went into scandisk, got to one
crosslinked file, and rebooted. Maybe the files on that disk are so messed
up that it cant complete checkdisk . If I try to boot to Safe Mode, the
computer reboots. But when I try to boot from the cloned disk, it reboots
when it tries to go into windows too. For some reason, my motherboard/bios
isn't allowing me to launch Windows XP. Might a boot sector virus cause
this? or maybe the motherboard itself has been damaged?

I connected my C: drive hard disk as a slave to an old computer that was
running Windows 98. I was able to copy several important files over using a
jump USB drive. Under Win 98, my C drive that has Windows XP home that won't
boot into Windows seemed fine.

Thinking it might be a problematic cable, I removed the primary controller
cable from the drive, removed the secondary controller cable from the DVD
and CD Rom drives, and used that cable to connect the primary controller to
my C drive. I still wasn't able to boot to windows. It got to the Windows XP
screen but then rebooted.

I booted the computer from the XP CD and started the recovery console which,
for some reason, ran. From the recovery console, I ran chkdsk /p and
chkdsk/r which resulted in no errors. I also ran fixboot and fixmbr. The
computer STILL wont boot to windows XP. I get to the starting windows screen
then the system reboots.

When I had the secondary controller cable disconnected (the one to the CDRW
and DVDRW drives) the computer tried to boot to Windows 98 and couldn't find
the files it needed. Windows XP home was installed as an Upgrade to 98 SE.

When I went to the install windows command on the XP CD it gave me a license
to accept, so it looks like it will allow me to install XP-Home upgrade
(assuming it finds some Win98 file somewhere that it can verify as an
upgrade from 98 to XP).

But, before I attempt that drastic step, is there some other command that I
can try with the recovery console?