Restore laptop to factory config. in XP? Solved/Closed

Question

Hello, I am trying to help a friend who knows even less than I do about electronics of any kind. (Scary, I know). But I know I can do this if someone would kindly give me the steps for restoring a Toshiba Satellite A80-S178TD to the factory configuration. I know, sounds simple enough right? But first, there the teeny-tiny little issue of whatever my friend did to it that would cause:

STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure) 
The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log alternate. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable. 

I don't know what that means but it didn't look good, and here's the best part: no backup or installation software. 

Having only my own previous experiences of screwing up a machine to go on, I was imagining that maybe this error will magically fix itself if we tried the restore process. I did this  very successfully on my Dell laptop w/Vista recently. 

This was originally her son's laptop, and she has been computer-curious, so she was using it to learn on; (Yeah, I know). I showed her how to clean & defrag, and clean out the browser; short-cut menus (I think that's where I went wrong with her). All basic stuff. Told her if you don't know where you are click cancel and stay out of it!

So if anyone out there can help and would be so inclined, many thanks and good karma points.

xpcman · Answer

If you have the Windows XP CD you can fix  the problem. First you will need to change the PC to boot from the CD drive.  This is done by pressing a Function key JUST after you turn on the PC.  Since there is more than one key used you will need to experiment ( try F2, F10, F11 or the Del key) Some laptops will flash a message with the correct procedure/key in the upper right of the screen during the startup.  Some allow you do a temp change to the boot order others make you do a perm change. You want to change the BIOS to start from the CD or DVD drive. This might be listed under "boot order". You must use the arrow keys to navigate with-in the BIOS, since the mouse does not work there.  Once you find the boot-order menu you will need to change the CD drive to be listed at the top. If there are instructions on the screen follow them. Otherwise, highlight the CD drive and use the "pageUp" or + keys to change the order.  Normally F10 will finalize the change and exit the BIOS.  Then restart the laptop with the Windows CD in the drive.

This is how you can fix this issue.

Boot to your Windows CD and choose R (Recovery Console), at the command prompt, type the following:

ren c:\windows\system32\config\software software.old
copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config

Reboot and return to the BIOS to change the boot order back to the hard disk first. Good Luck

dan · Answer

I am having a similar problem.   I have the original Dell Restore disk.   I have gone into CMOS setup and have directed the PC to use the CD drive as the primary boot.   It ignores this and boots back up to Windows.   I know the disk is good since I can open it up in Windows explorer to view it.   Additionally I can click setup.exe on the restore disk and it opens the install program within Windows.

I even tried cntrl f11 as suggested earlier in this thread.

Anybody have an idea how to get the system to recognize CD as the primary boot?

Jeevin · Answer

i hav 1 too this is wat u do, rite at the start up hold down 0 and let go after 15 sec and then there iwll be recover options

Ross · Answer

xpcman I want to thank you for the info, I have the same problum and sould not fig, out how to get to the boot sec. I found it thanks to you. you were very helpful. I do have a boot disk Toshiba did it right when thay made the boot disk  
Thanks very much 
Ross

Restore laptop to factory config. in XP?

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