Windows XP Boots to Blue Screen and Halt

If you were to shutdown Windows XP while there is activities running in the background, chances are that when you restart your machine, you will get a blue screen with a message about some corrupted files in C:\WINDOWS\system32\config.

To resolve this problem, you will need to boot up from Windows XP CD and press F10 to get into Windows Recovery Console.

Once in, they will prompt you for the administrator password. Enter your administrator password to logon. If you do not have the administrator password, you will need to boot to recovery console with a Windows 2000 CD which will not prompt you for the password.

Once you are in the C:\Windows directory, change directory to a folder that was created on first install known as repair. This can be done by typing "CD repair" at the "C:\WINDOWS" prompt. This is the backup location of the system files that were created on first install.

Copy the exact file that was stated on the XP blue screen as corrupted back into the original folder location e.g."copy system ..\system32\config".

Type“EXIT”to restart the system.

This should get you back into Windows XP GUI Mode and save you money from calling some tech support to come down onsite to it for you. :)

It will also do away with the lame option of reformatting your hard drive (and lose all data) offered by the "Restore Disk" that comes with your system.

Other errors:

Missing NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM or HAL.DLL