Registry & CDrom problem

[Digital*Firefly]

OK I'm trying to fix a computer for someone from work. As soon as the system boots up it gives a blue screen and says there's a registry error. He's runing XP Pro. Is there a way to fix the registry from dos? or does anyone know of a programs that I can run from a floppy?

Also for some reason it's not booting to any CD I put in the drive. I have the CD rom as the primary boot device also.

[Duality]

Are you able to boot into Safe Mode? Also, what is the exact STOP error you're getting?

[Digital*Firefly]

First off, I got the CD problem fixed, it was the ide cable.

It still does it in Safe mode. The error says Registry_Error. Then it goes on to say 'if this is the first time you're seeing this error, reboot. If it conitnues get professional help'

It happens about 10 seconds after windows finishes loading. I can't get anything running. I made it into safe mode and tried to do a system restore, but it crashes before I can pick the restore point.

here's the error

STOP: (0x00000051, 0x00000001, 0x0E1FF0098, 0X00C49150)

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete...

[Digital*Firefly]

Ok. I'm still getting the stop error. I was going to just reformat, but he doesn't have the resotre CD. He called Dell and they told his you can download it from the website in the software section. For the life of me I can't find it. I've been looking for 2 hours. Has anyone ever downloaded it fro mthere before?

[AcquiredTarget]

Nah, all I've ever found was the regular downloads (http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen) section with various drivers, utlities, and the like. So they told him they've put an image of the restore disk on their website? I'd be surprised that they're willing to put up that amount of data. Maybe they were just talking about the drivers, etc.

[Duality]

Chances are what you're looking for is some sort of boot disk, either floppy or a CD image. I'm almost positive that you won't have to download a whole CD of data off the Internet. What OEMs usually do is store all of the information on a second (often hidden) partition on the hard drive. Then they offer you a disc to boot from to restore the hard drive to the state it was when it was first purchased.

As for the STOP error you're getting, a corrupt registry means you're pretty much hosed. Microsoft expects you to call them to find out how to cure it -- at an additional cost, I assure you. Honestly, its easier to go the route you're going for and just reinstall everything.

When you do get Windows reinstalled, be sure to run CHKDSK (like SCANDISK for NTFS). You can find out how to use it here (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx). You'll want to go into a Command Prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd) and type ...

chkdsk c: /f /r

It will ask you to reboot the computer and when you do, it'll run chkdsk during the Startup sequence to check for bad sectors. Data corruptions isn't necessarily an indication of anything, but its safer to check to make absolutely sure your hard drive doesn't have bad sectors. If it turns out it does, then get the hard drive swapped out by Dell immediately.

[Digital*Firefly]

Well I called Dell to order him a replacement recovery disc and they told me it would cost $309. I laughed at the guy, asked him why and he said because it's the OS it costs that much. I then hung up.