How to fix a MissingCorrupt SYSTEM file in Windows XP without the Recovery CDThis tutorial aims to teach you how to fix a corrupt or missing SYSTEM file in windows XP without the use of the recovery CD. I spent 6 hours round a friends house yesterday and finally came up with a solution that worked. Today, I want to share what Ive learnt to help other folks get round this fairly common issue without the grief I had to go through Disclaimer I am not a computer repair technician. Just a computer geek sharing a solution that worked for me. Continue at your own risk, I take no responsibility whatsoever what happens. Always back up, and if youre not sure, dont proceed. Ok, lets get started. UPDATE one of the readers suggested i highlight earlier on that this solution will only work if you have a restore point on your machine. Im pretty certain the machine that i fixed never had a manual system restore made and therefore, in my opinion, its worth trying even if you cant remember doing so manually. I cannot confirm 1. XP, but i know later Windows OS take automatic restore points when significant system events such as the installation of a program or device driver occur. Given the number of restore points found on the machine i was working on, i can only assume that this is too the case for Windows XP. Some readers have also mentioned that in some cases viruses may have delete these restore points, so i guess its a case of take a look and hope for the bestPlease note though, if there are no restore points when you look the only option is to try and get hold of the CD. Below is a break down of the key sections of this post. Id recommend you read the whole thing to make sure you get the best understanding of what has happened and how to fix. But, if you just want the solution click below. What is the SYSTEM file In XP and why has it stopped my machine workingSubInACL is a commandline tool that enables administrators to obtain security information about files, registry keys, and services, and transfer this. The SYSTEM file on your computer is one of a collection of files that stores registry information about your computers configuration and set up. All XP machines have this file stored in the following location along with a number of other key config files such as SOFTWARE, SECURITY, SAM and DEFAULT. C WindowsSystem. If youve received the message below when trying to boot into windows then its more than likely that something has happened to corrupt the file or its missing from the System. Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt WINDOWSSYSTEM3. CONFIGSYSTEMYou can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the original setup CD Rom. A-0Ui9IJ8/TeoJfhLezgI/AAAAAAAAAAg/wgQXH6Pj66k/s1600/1111.gif' alt='System32 Config System File Is Corrupted' title='System32 Config System File Is Corrupted' />Select r at the first screen to start repair. How did this happen There are many reasons why this could have happened. For example, you might have forced a hard shutdown at the wrong time which is what happened in the scenario I was dealing with consequently the file has become corrupted and Windows is no longer able to boot because of this. As the screenshot and error message above describe, the default approach to resolve is is to use the recovery console in the Windows XP installation disc, but what if you havent got the Windows XP CDI spent a long time searching for the answer to this without any luck. Default outofthebox booting on WinPE with SCCM 20122016 is quite slow Ive seen boot times up to 20 minutes. This is because System Center Configuration. As briefly mentioned in Section 1. Alternative frontends, VBoxManage is the commandline interface to VirtualBox. With it, you can completely control. This tutorial aims to teach you how to fix a corrupt or missing SYSTEM file in windows XP without the use of the recovery CD. I spent 6 hours round a friends house. Why wont cmd exit after execution of batch file I have tried CProgram Files x86Javajre6binjavaw. Xmx1024M Xms1024M jar Jilko. C. My solution aims to  provide you with a quick and relatively easy way to resolve the problem without the XP CD or Recovery Console. Why do you need the recovery disc in the first place From my understanding, the XP disc allows you to boot into the recovery console and use the command line to copy an olderstable version of the SYSTEM file over the corrupt or missing version. Without the XP CD youll find yourself completely stuck though, as you have no way to access the DOScommand prompt and copy the back up into the system. Note If you have the XP CD, i suggest reading Microsofts official solution on How to Recover a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting as this may be quicker and easier solution for you. How to fix the SYSTEM file without the Windows XP Recovery Disc. To summarize, my solution aims to get round this problem by Creating a bootable version of Linux on a USB stick if youve never used or heard of Linux, dont worry, its not as scary as it sounds Linux is a safe place, trustBoot into Linux to get access to the files on the hard disc in this instance the Ubuntu Linux DistributionFind the broken SYSTEM and SOFTWARE files. Find the most recent working backups of the SYSTEM and SOFTWARE files. Overwrite the corrupt files using the Linux Interface no need to have to use DOS commands like with the recovery CD method Reboot back into Windows XP using most recently known working version of the SYSTEM file. In total, this process should take about 4. Linux distribution. Before you start, you are going to need the following A PC that works An Internet connection. A USB stick at least 2. GB in size. A copy of Unetbootin. Step one Create a  USB Boot disk with Linux using Unetbootin. Go to unetbootin. Unetbootin. The software is free, safe and will do all the hard work of downloading Linux and mounting it onto a USB hustle free. FYI In this example i am using Ubuntu. MAKE 1. 00 SURE THAT THE DRIVE YOU MOUNT THE LINUX DISTRIBUTION ON IS THE USB DRIVE. OTHERWISE YOULL END UP WRITING OVER SOMETHING YOU REALLY DONT WANT TOStep two Boot into Linux off the USBNow Shut down your machine and then turn it back on whilst pressing the function key that allows you to choose your boot options on my machine this is F1. If your not sure, you should see the this in the POST startup screen when you first power up the machine. Select USB device in boot device menu. Note, on some systems you may need to go into your BIOS and select the option of booting into a USB device. Heres a screenshot of where this is on my machine yours might be slightly differentWhen the option prompt appears, Select the USB Device option and press enter. If all goes to plan the machine will then proceed to boot into Linux. When Ubuntu is loaded you may get a message that says Try Ubuntu and another for Install Ubuntu. Just click the Try Ubuntu button and then it will complete loading to the desktop environment. Click Try UbuntuStep three locating the System. Navigate to WindowsSystem. Config folder. Use the built in file browser to navigate to the location of WINDOWS on the hard drive. Follow the screenshot below to help find this. You will essentially be looking for what would have been in the following location in WINDOWS C WINDOWSsystem. Once you find the config folder you will see copies of all the files including the all important SYSTEM file. Next we need to open a new window and find a copy of the the most recent backups of these system files which is stored in a folder called System Volume Information which is normally hidden in Windows. As were using Linux you wont need to worry about this though, you will find this folder in what would have been the following in windows. C System Volume Information. System Volume Information. Once in the System Volume Information folder you will see another folder called arestorehexidecimal characters. Go in there and you should be presented with a number of different folders with the the following naming convention RP1. Serial Port Communication In Delphi more. It is these folders where Windows should have saved back ups of the system files. To find the most recent one, navigate to the folder with the highest value e. RP2. 95 and go in to that and find the snapshot folder. Configure and troubleshoot Distributed Transaction Coordinator Smallvoid. Reinstall MSDTC. Reinstall the Distributed Transaction Coordinator MSDTC with the following steps Win. Win. XPVista. Execute commands. Net stop msdtc. Msdtc uninstall. Delete registry keys. HKEYLOCALMACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft MSDTCHKEYLOCALMACHINE SYSTEM Current. Control. Set Services MSDTCExecute commands. Msdtc install. Msdtc resetlog. Net start msdtc. More Info MS KB2. More Info MS KB2. More Info MS KB8. Reset Recovery Log. Distributed Transaction Coordinator MSDTC uses the following. MS DTC recovery information Win. NT4 also uses Dtcxatm. System. Rootsystem. DTCLogMSDTC. LOG. If the location of the log file is faulty non existing or no permission. MSDTC. LOG is corrupted, then it will keep the service from starting and give errors like. Event ID 7. 02. Source Service Control Manager. Description The MSDTC service terminated with service specific error 3. Event ID 4. 16. Source MSDTCDescription MS DTC log file not found. After ensuring that all Resource Managers coordinated by MS DTC have no indoubt transactions, please run msdtc resetlog to create the log file. More Info MS KB2. To reset the log file. If possible start the computer in safemode. Open the System. RootSystem. DTCLog folder. Unless you have changed the default locationIf a Msdtc. Msdtc. old. Use Notepad to save an empty file as Msdtc. Open a CMD prompt and type msdtc resetlog and press Enter. Fix corrupted COM catelog. The Distributed Transaction Coordinator might fail to perform properly. COM Catalog have become corrupted.