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Corrupted system.sys...and another problem
I'm running windows XP on a cisnet computer that I bought a little over a year ago. A couple months ago, it started having problems at startup. It would load perhaps (but not always) as far as the "windows" sign with the blue loading bar, and then crash and start up from the beginning. Once in a great while, it would inform me that windows/system32/config/system.sys was missing or corrupt, and that that was the cause of the problem (in this case it would stop, rather than crash, and wouldn't let me do anything besides shut down)
My computer came pre-programmed with software called "PCAngel" which I got instead of a recovery disk. It basically contains its own little disk, as well as several options to fix problems. I guess. After I was unable to load several times, I tried hitting F10 to access that and restore the system. It almost always failed to actually load PCAngel, usually resulting in a blue screen with one of these error messages:
*** STOP: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0x804AB49F, 0xF7C8918C, 0x00000000)
(no explanation)
OR
acpi.sys
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
***STOP: 0X00000050 (0XC678A0C0, 0X00000000, 0XF77805AE, 0X00000000)
***acpi.sys - Address F77805AE base at F776D000, DateStamp 3d6dd69f
OR
*** STOP: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0x804AC116, 0xF7C89230, 0x00000000)
(no explanation)
OR
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
***STOP: 0X000000D1 (0XC05EC840, 0X00000002, 0X00000000, 0XF7C3EF08)
***BOOTVID.dll - Address F7C3EFO8 base at F7C3E000, DateStamp 3b7d8345
OR
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
***STOP: 0X00000050 (0XFF9822E8, 0X00000000, 0X80424844, 0X00000000)
OR
acpi.sys
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
***STOP: 0X00000050 (0XC679C03C, 0X00000000, 0XF77846AE, 0X00000000)
***acpi.sys - Address F77846AE base at F776D000, DateStamp 3d6dd69f
When it did load, I tried restoring the computer, but it would always crash during the process.
The really weird thing is that if I'm persistent (50 or 60 tries at first, but more recently as few as 5 or 6) then the computer will eventually load just fine. Still, it's really frustrating and I don't have any reason to believe it will consistently be as easy as it has been recently.
Knowing it was the system file that was corrupt, I attached the hard drive to another computer and swapped the system.sys file for the system.bak file. This made the problem worse, so that the computer was completely unable to load. I forget the exact error message, but the point is that that didn't work.
I looked online and found advice to get an XP cd and fix it with that (I have the instructions for doing so still). Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, I lack an XP cd. I downloaded one (two, actually, both "OEM" CD's). The first one I burned improperly, I guess, because it wouldn't boot. I tried simply re-installing windows xp with it (while windows was running) but it would consistently be missing a file (usually a different file). I tried running without, once, and the attempt failed. However, now whenever I boot up my computer I can shoose between windows xp home and windows xp setup (the setup being doomed to fail).
The second cd does boot, but, while my instructions tell me to press "r" and give a password and run programs, etc., what it does when it boots doesn't allow for input (it looks to me like it's trying to install windows). In any event, it fails, ususlly because a file (not the same file consistently) is corrupt.
So, my question is twofold:
1) How do I fix my initial problem, where my computer won't load and keeps looping?
2) How do I fix the problem I caused myself, where I have a half-installed version of XP that wants to load up (and is the default)?
Thanks in advance.
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