Windows cannot start due to a corrupted or missing \Windows\System32\config\system. The file with windows system32 config systemprofile desktop is not available What is the file system32

The problem is quite popular. If you get an error called “Application is unavailable” with the following text: “File C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\Desktop is unavailable. If it is on this computer, make sure the drive is connected or inserted and try again.

If it is a network file, check that you are connected to a network or the Internet and try again. If you can't find the file, it may have been moved or deleted.

Most likely your profile has been damaged. The user profile when loading the operating system allows you to apply your personal settings. If you receive the error message above, then first of all try to simply restart your computer, as the problem may have occurred accidentally. For example, when loading the OS, the profile could be created incorrectly due to an antivirus program checking during login.

You can try to create a new profile, that is, a new account, which will create a new profile when created. If you have more than one profile, then this solution would be a good option. After creating it, you will need to transfer personal data from my documents and desktop from the old profile and after that this account can be deleted.
For those who prefer to correct the current situation, scanning the system for viruses can help. If you cannot log into the OS and there are no other accounts, you can use a LiveCD, a boot disk with an antivirus, or you can simply remove the hard drive and connect it to another computer.
At the next stage, you can try to roll back the system back to a time when this problem was not observed. Read the article about system recovery. Recovery helps about 50/50.
For more advanced users, I would also advise checking your hard drive for bad problems with the Victoria program. See. The profile is also stored on the hard drive and, accordingly, if there are defects on the hard drive, the profile file may not be readable. I would complete this step before I tried to rollback.
At the last stage, I would check the memory for defects using the memtest program. Details

Hello friends, yesterday I encountered an error that Windows XP presented in this form:

It looks like this:

If you are reading this article, then most likely you have the same problem and now we will solve it. I understand that this will be extra text and it is better to immediately move on to solving the problem, but I will still make a few introductory words and tell you what this error means and why it most often appears. By the way, if there are problems with the registry, the following errors may also appear:

– “Windows XP cannot start due to a corrupted or missing file \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE”
– “Stop: c0000218 (Registry file failure) The registry cannot load the partition family (file) \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or backup copy.”

What does the error “Windows can’t start because the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\config\system file is corrupted or missing” mean?

This error appears mainly in the following cases:

The computer does not turn off correctly. That is, not through “Start”, etc., but directly from the outlet :) this may seem funny to some, but believe me, many people do this.
The second option is a problem with the hard drive. It is possible that your hard drive has begun to crumble, that is, bad sectors have appeared on it. This is a very unpleasant thing, since you will most likely have to replace the hard drive.

Now closer to the heart of the matter.

How to fix the error

There are two ways that I know of that can get rid of this problem. No, there are even three methods, including reinstalling Windows (), but this is not suitable for us as an option for restoring the system. Today I will tell you only about one method that helped me. I’ll write about another one later in a separate article.

We will need a boot disk with some kind of file manager, I used a good disk, you can check your PC for viruses, but that’s not about that now.

1. Boot from the boot disk; if booting from the disk does not work for you, then you need to go to the drive BIOS ().

2. Boot from the boot disk, and launch any file manager, if yours is the same as mine, then there is a good file manager on your desktop.

3. After launching the file manager, open the file in it (if it allows you to work with two windows) in one window and in the other \windows\repair\system.

4. Now the file \windows\repair\system copy to \windows\system32\config\systemand agree to replace the file.

A few words about what we did. We have transferred the undamaged backup file from the folder \windows\repair\systemand replaced it with a non-working file in the folder \windows\system32\config\systemactually through which Windows did not boot.

Now we restart the computer and enjoy the working system. All these actions can be performed from the command line with the following commands:

Copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\system32\config\system.old

delete c:\windows\system32\config\system

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system

Other solutions to the problem:

If what is written above does not help, then you can also try “Last Known Good Configuration”. Read more in the article
If you had System Restore enabled, you can try a rollback. More details here

After these steps, we get a working system, with all programs installed. There is another way, which, as promised, I will write in the following articles. I hope my advice helped you. Good luck!

Also on the site:

Updated: February 17, 2013 by: admin

File Windows\system32\config\system damaged or missing, you and I may receive such a message during the initial phase of loading the operating system. The error occurs when the registry is seriously damaged. I’ll tell you right away there are few ways to fix this problem, but they exist. The main difficulty is that you cannot boot the operating system. I'll give you four ways to fix this problem, but you'll need a Windows XP installation disk or an ERD Commander disk, or at worst a simple Live CD.

First of all, this problem happens due to many errors on the hard drive, try using the CHKDSK C: / R command in the recovery console, the errors will be corrected and your system may boot. You can also remove your hard drive and connect it to another system unit, then from another Windows you can check your system partition for errors, you can read the full article on using the utility
You can boot from the ERD Commander disk and try to apply a system restore. By the way, the ERD Commander system administrator disk can help out in other difficult situations, read the full article about this tool.
Another way. If you had system recovery enabled, then you will need an ERD Commander disk or any Live CD. This is the point. We all know that Windows XP stores restore points in the folder
Last option. If system recovery was disabled for you, then you need to replace your damaged registry files with files from the C:\Windows\repair folder, this folder contains backup copies of your registry created by the operating system during its installation, this can be done using any Live CD .

Now about each method in detail.

File Windows\system32\config\system

To implement the first method, we need a Windows XP installation disk, so we boot into the recovery console. Those who don’t know how to do this can read our article In the recovery console, let’s check our system drive (C:) for errors. When you start booting from the Windows XP installation disk, the message “Press any key to boot from CD...” will appear on the screen, press any key at once, otherwise the message will disappear within 10 seconds and booting from the Windows XP installation disk will not occur.

To restore Windows XP using the recovery console, press R

Enter the administrator password. Enter the administrator password. If there is no password, then press Enter on the keyboard.
When using the Chkdsk program in the Windows XP Recovery Console, they mainly use the /R parameter, which includes the functions of another /P parameter. Therefore, we will use the /R parameter
Enter the command Chkdsk /r
and press Enter, the hard drive is checked for errors.

Second way.

To implement the second method of eliminating the error The Windows\system32\config\system file is damaged or missing We need an ERD Commander disk, we boot from the disk.
Click start, then system tools System Tools->System Restore and select system restore. Select a system restore point and restore.

Third way.

We all know that Windows XP stores restore points in a folder

System Volume Information\restore(E9F1FFFA-7940-4ABA-BEC6- 8E56211F48E2)\RP\ snapshot , so, in the folder highlighted in red, intact registry files are stored. We need to copy these files and replace the damaged registry files with them from the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder
We boot from the ERD Commander disk or any Live CD; if you are working from the ERD Commander disk, we do not connect to the system, that is, at the beginning of loading the ERD Commander disk, select (None), otherwise you will not be able to replace the registry files.

go to the folder C:\Windows\System32\Config. Use the slider to open the full file name and delete (Delete) damaged registry files. Before deleting, you can copy them somewhere just in case, you never know.

System Volume Information\restore(E9F1FFFA-7940-4ABA-BEC6- 8E56211F48E2)\RP\ snapshot , select the files, right-click and select Copy to…

REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
REGISTRY_MACHINE\SOFTWARE
REGISTRY_MACHINE\DEFAULT
REGISTRY_MACHINE\SYSTEM

Now we paste these files in place of the deleted ones in the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder.
Select the folder C:\Windows\System32\Config and click OK. Backup registry files are copied to replace damaged ones. Then we go to the Config folder and rename them, deleting the unnecessary ones - REGISTRY_MACHINE \, thereby leaving new registry files SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, DEFAULT, SYSTEM.

Fourth method
You can also replace your damaged registry files with files from the C:\Windows\repair folder; this folder contains backup copies of your registry created by the operating system during its installation; this can be done using the ERD Commander disk or any Live CD. But be aware that some of your applications will refuse to work and will have to be reinstalled, since the system state will be shown at the time of installation.

Backup copies of the registry files created during the installation of Windows XP are located in the repair folder located at

C:\Windows\repair . We go into it, select and copy with the Copy to... command the registry files we need SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, DEFAULT, SYSTEM,

Then go to the folder C:\Windows\System32\Config, select it and click OK.

Backup registry files replace damaged ones. Replace file? We agree - Yes

This error may appear when starting Windows XP. This error has several variants, such as Windows cannot start due to a corrupted or missing file:
\Windows\System32\config\software
\Windows\System32\config\sam
\Windows\System32\config\security
\Windows\System32\config\default

Reason for this error- damage to the system registry due to a crash, incorrect operation of the program, or an unexpected shutdown of the computer. This problem may also occur due to a faulty hard drive. Let's figure out how to fix the error:

Correction using the operating system:

1. Restart your computer and press the F8 key until the operating system boot options menu appears.
2. Select the “Load last known known configuration (with working parameters)” option. When you select this item, the system will try to replace damaged files on its own.
3. Restart your computer. If the problem persists, try also selecting to boot in safe mode, and in safe mode, perform a system restore and check the disk for errors.

Restore \Windows\System32\config\system manually.

In order to restore damaged files manually, you need to copy the files from c:\windows\repair\ to \Windows\System32\config\system.

Recovery from LiveCD

1. Boot from a flash drive or Live CD
2. In a file manager or explorer (if you are using a Windows-based LiveCD), open the c:\windows\system32\config\ folder (the drive letter when booting from an external drive may not be C, do not pay attention), find the file that according to the message The OS is damaged or missing (it should not have an extension) and just in case, do not delete it, but rename it, for example, system.old, software.old, etc.
3. Copy the required file from c:\windows\repair\ to c:\windows\system32\config\

You can do the above without LIveCD. For this we will use the command line.
1. Try going to the boot options menu (F8 when you turn on the computer) and select Safe Mode with Command Line Support. But this option may not work.
2. Boot from the Windows XP operating system disc, and when prompted to install Windows, press the "R" key to launch the Recovery Console.

3. Or you can use a bootable Windows 7, 8 USB flash drive (or disk). After loading Windows Setup, on the language selection screen, press Shift+F10 to open the command line.

Determining the drive letter with Windows. In the console type dir C: and look at the folder structure. If this is not your system disk, type dir d: or others.
To display the letters of all drives, type: wmic logicaldisk get caption

After the drive letter is determined, type the following commands:

*Creating backup copies of files
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\system32\config\system.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\system32\config\software.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\system32\config\security.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\system32\config\default.bak

*Deleting a corrupted file
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

*Restoring a file from a backup copy
copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

After all operations are completed type EXIT and restart the computer.

First of all, this problem happens due to many errors on the hard drive, try using the CHKDSK C: / R command in the recovery console, the errors will be corrected and your system may boot. You can also remove your hard drive and connect it to another system unit, then from another Windows you can check your system partition for errors, you can read the full article on using the utility
You can boot from the ERD Commander disk and try to apply a system restore. By the way, the ERD Commander system administrator disk can help out in other difficult situations, read the full article about this tool.
Another way. If you had system recovery enabled, then you will need an ERD Commander disk or any Live CD. This is the point. We all know that Windows XP stores restore points in the folder
Last option. If system recovery was disabled for you, then you need to replace your damaged registry files with files from the C:\Windows\repair folder, this folder contains backup copies of your registry created by the operating system during its installation, this can be done using any Live CD .