PC help please?

Question

When I turn on my pc I get a blue screen with this written on it:
STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternate
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical dump memory complete.
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance.


Everything worked fine until I made the mistake to let my 17 year old son on the computer, he thinks he's a genius... well.. obviously not cause he left me with a blue screen.
Can someone help PLEASE... anyone???

Thanks for all the answers so far didn't expect so many in such a short time. Got to go to work now, will try your suggestions when I get back home.
THANKS ALOT.

@GE
I'm located in Sydney Australia. Tried all of the above but wasn't very lucky. Have to confess... I'm not really a computer expert... far from it.

Answer 1

haha your registry is corrupted
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756
your son may or may not have done it, windows can just screw up for somthing simple as pressing the power button instead of properly shutting it down or many other reasons
how to restore it depends on what os you have

Answer 2

A stop error is the infamous "Blue Screen of Death". A registry failure means your computer is probably hosed; you will probably need to reinstall the operating system. Hopefully you have recovery disks or a recovery partition, otherwise you are (expletive deleted) .

See if you can use F8 when your computer is booting and bring your computer up in Safe Mode. If you can't you are hosed and your computer is toast; you will have to reinstall the operating system.

Answer 3

Well he sounds just like me.


I don't think he did anthying it could be a virus or the registry could be damaged if that is the case you could just run a virus Scan how ever if it wont let you to the desk top that will be no good.
it that is the case you will have to do ether a system restore or reformat the hard drive.

Answer 4

It sounds like your windows has been damaged.You can try going to settings/control panel/system/system restore and see if there is a restore point you can restore from that was before your son messed up the computer.If that doesn't work boot from your windows cd and pick the repair option to fix windows.

Answer 5

You need to download some Registry Repair software. Look for it on you net servers search file find the one you want and download it. Some might be free other you will have to buy.

Answer 6

This is one thing you could try:
Boot off your Windows CD, and go to the Recovery Console. In the console, type "chkdsk [driveletter] /r" but instead of [driveletter], type the letter of the drive where Windows is installed (usually C:). If it say something about cannot fix RAW drives, type "chkdsk [driveletter] /f" If the samething happens, let me know and i got many alternative ways.
Good Luck!

Answer 7

Hi,
1 or some of above responses may or may not work.
where are you located?
the re install of operating system should fix problem, although I would try the repair options first.
Note doing a re install - depending on how it is done, you may loose all of your data, so you may want to be careful.
If repair does not work and you need to re install , suggest data backup and or data recovery.
"and or connect drive to a workable machine and copy backup data."
where are you located?

Answer 8

if you can boot in safe mode try restoring to an earlier date