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Windows Dualboot Problems-Missing or Corrupt File

5 June 2008 103 views One CommentEmail This Post Email This Post

Many of us run a dual boot because there may be some work related applications that do not run so well on ubuntu…But The Crappy windows Doesnt Work Smoothly and often gives error messages on boot which may be due to a corrupted registry showing that this file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

The Following steps can help you fix the problem ( If your ntfs partition gets detected automatically u can skip the first three steps)

  • Install NTFS-3G:This package allows you to perform I/O on an NTFS filesystem.
  • Install NTFSProgs:This package contains some useful admin tools to use on NTFS filesystems
  • Mount NTFS filesystem:You will need to mount your Windows partition to backup your corrupted registry files. To do this run the following commands

    sudo mkdir /media/windows
    sudo ntfs-3g -o rw /dev/<device-name> /media/windows

    if you get a message regarding Windows not being shutdown properly, then run the following command to force the mount

    sudo ntfs-3g -o force,rw /dev/<device-name> /media/windows

    Both of the above commands will mount the device as read-write.

  • Replace these files:You might want to back up the files in /media/windows/WINDOWS/system32/config/ before replacing them just in case this is not a registry problem

    Now copy the following files from the file /media/windows/System Volume Information/_restore{xxx}/RPxxx/snapeshot/ dir:

    _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT
    _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
    _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
    _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
    _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM

    to the /media/windows/WINDOWS/system32/config/ dir and name them as follows:

    _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT => default
    _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY => security
    _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE => software
    _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM => system
    _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM => sam

  • Schedule a consistency check

    Run this command to schedule a NTFS consistency check for the first boot into Windows

    sudo ntfsfix /dev/<device-name>

  • Reboot into Windows twice

    The first reboot you should get a blue screen telling you that you should run a filesystem consistency check. Let the check run and then the second reboot should bring you back into a bootable Windows

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One Comment »

  • Mike said:

    Thanks a lot for the guide..i was waiting for the correct solution to this problem… u r a life saver

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