registry error preventing me from Win XP CD Recovery

[Broni]

They have to be made from within Windows, so it's not your option.

[patio]

What does this XP CD look like ? ? Holograms all over it or Sharpie ? ?

I've never been unable to access the RC on a XP CD...

[cyberen]

holograms. It's the real deal.

I'm off to find someone who still has a floppy disk drive so they can download the appropriate tool from

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287#seagate

thanks for the help and I'll let you know how it goes!

[Broni]

You can use bootable CD.

[cyberen]

Well, I did what you said and downloaded, burned and used SeaTools for DOS v1.10 (Text) for my hard drive.

It's a Seagate hard drive, model ST3120026A, with a SiS 963 controller and a SN of 5JT4SPWV. MAX LBA 120 GB

I did both the short and long scan and the hard drive passed.
SMART is supported but disabled. Should I try to enable it in the BIOS menu?

If both scans passed, what should I do now? I'd really rather not use the erase function if I can help it, I'd like to try to salvage my files if possible.

[Broni]

I'm not sure, what to say at this point.
Bad CD? Bad CD drive?
Can you try that CD on another computer?

[cyberen]

It can't be a bad CD drive because you said both error messages were indicative of a corrupted registry. Are there any other handy-dandy files I could burn to a CD to boot with that could help with that?

[Broni]

Unfortunately, Windows errors can't be read with 100% certainty.
Wait, maybe patio will come come up with some other thought.

[cyberen]

I sure appreciate your help so far.
I'm not giving up!

[Broni]

You're welcome

[JJ 3000]

I tried the repair installation. I got to the step where I agreed to the license agreement and the darn 2nd error message showed up again. And I can't do a clean install because I need to get past the license agreement for that too! Any help?

So when you go to install a fresh copy of windows and press F8 to agree to the EULA you get the registry error message? That is very odd.
If I were you, I would slave the drive in another working machine, save all of the data and then format it.

[cyberen]

I'm going to try Knoppix first, as I've never installed a secondary hard drive before, and this CPU is screwed tight.

Update: Well Knoppix isn't working, it stalls on the "Boot from CD" message and eventually some buzzing sound emanates from the PC. I'll keep looking for IPO files to rescue CDs and in the meanwhile plan to install it as a slave Hard Drive to another PC.

[cyberen]

sorry for double-posting but the situation has improved.

I downloaded the recovery console from here:

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

and was able to access the C:/windows directory as well as DOS in general.

I tried copy&pasting my documents from the computer to my flash drive but I don't even know where the "my documents" is from DOS.
Also, I ran chkdsk but is there anything else I can do since the recovery console is what was suggested from the original error message?
Thank you, I feel a solution is close at hand.

[Broni]

Follow the manual from here: http://icrontic.com/articles/repair_windows_xp, starting at

After you have selected the appropriate option from step two, you will be prompted to select a valid Windows installation (Typically number “1?).

toward the of bottom of the first page.