F*&k Microsoft
So, my Sony Vaio running Windows XP has been unable to boot for the past week. I happened to update to SP3 right before my current trip to Asia. On the flight over to HK, the VAIO died. At first, it would boot up, and flash a blue screen error, which would be unreadable because it flashed by so fast. Then, it started just hanging on the Safe Mode menu screen. Without access to a second computer, I was pretty much hosed.
So, last night, after arriving at my sister's place in SG, I downloaded a boot disk program (http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm), and today I went out and bought some CD-RWs so I could actually make one.
After running the boot disk, somehow, the PC started booting back into the blue screen flash rather than just hanging. Using my digital camera, I was able to catch the error:
Registry cannot load the hive(file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
A quick google seach turns up:
So, using the boot disk, I execute the following commands in the boot disk's version of Explorer:
copy C:\windows\system32\config\software C:\windows\tmp\software.bak
delete C:\windows\system32\config\software
copy C:\windows\repair\software C:\windows\system32\config\software
delete C:\windows\system32\config\software
copy C:\windows\repair\software C:\windows\system32\config\software
Now, I can boot to Windows, but I get a bunch of SQL server errors, and it doesn't load my desktop properly and seems to run really slow... I'm glad I can get to my data, but this is such a pain in the ass. Luckily I have my 250gb WD passport to copy files over to.
I'm going to use my sister's PC to work this week now that I have access to my data, and wait until I get home to backup and restore this stupid machine. First a dead nVidia video card, now this... I got a VAIO because it was the "closest thing to a Mac but still a PC", but I think I'm going to have to make the switch soon and just get the real thing. With the VAIO, the biggest similarity to a Mac seems to be the price premium I paid for it. Grrr...