Registry can not load the hive.

[bigal50]

Recenlty my computer crashed. I get the blue screen that reads " Registry can not load the hive."  The hive ! !  Whats a hive?  Did bee's somehow get into my computer??!!  But seriously.  I was advised to to a XP  repair. Put the XP cd in hit the "R" option which I did. I was taken to DOS screen and aksed which installtion I wanted to repair. I choose, 1-C:\(windows) and at the next prompt I was instructed to enter  fixmbr and hit enter, I did . I got a mesage the said the the master boot record was successfully updated. Someting to that effect. I started my PC and am still getting the same blue screen with the hive messsage.  Help me !!  What else can I do.

[bigal50]

Just before the " Hive "  I had recently obtained a used DVD-RW which worked sporatically. I watched a movie the night before. Stopped he move when it was done. But when I turned off the PC I left the DVD movie in the drive. would that cause the "Hive issue."  But wait theres more. Had recently received an enormous electric bill which all i could atrribute to was leaving the my PC on 24/7. So I started turning the PC off when not using it and of course on when I needed to use it. Could all this starting and stopping have caused the " Hive Issue "  Excuse me if I'm rambling I just wanted to list any pertinent,  hopefully usefull information.  Thanks

[Allan]

Huh?

[BC_Programmer]

Huh?

More information about a issue in another thread being posted as a new thread for some reason.

[Allan]

Oh. Okay, thanks BC

[Allan]

You need the exact error message. A system registry consists of "hives" or modules. You need to know which hive (module) is corrupt.

[patio]

Topics merged.
Starting multiple Topics never helps and just confuses things...

[Allan]

And then there's: http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,100599.msg681780.html#msg681780

[bigal50]

Thank You Allan ! !

[Allan]

You're welcome. All straightened out?

[bigal50]

Not yet straightened out had to go to work. But am home now. I'll be honest with you I'm kinda of nervous bout performing these the commands on my PC.
( Performance anxiety I guess, pardon ther pun ) I'm more of a hardware kinda of guy. I've bulit PC and Macs many times from tha ground up.  But when it comes to software issues, I'll be truthful am kind of hesitant. I guess because I think if I dont do this right, I'll render the PC even more useless than it is now and then I really wont be able to acces some valuable data. The lesson I learned here is BACK-UP, BACK-UP- BACK-UP. always do back ups !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and i know this and i know this better.  Stupid, stupid stupid, me!!  Is that pathethic enough, like my spelling.

[Allan]

If you prefer, you can do a repair install. Boot to the XP cd and choose the SECOND repair option, allowing the OS to install on top of itself. All system files will be overwritten with the original versions (you'll have to run MS Update after the repair).

[bigal50]

Thank you for our pateince and I apologize for being a such a pansy.
I f I do the " Repair" from the XP cd like you suggest, again, will i lose all my pics, docs, music, etc ??


If I do the commands at the prompt like you suggested earlier and that dosent work and I do the repair it would just redo the command line instructions, right.

What are the adbvantages of one or the other ? ?

Again, sorry bout all the questions I just try  to gather a lot in info before I venture into any new venture. I like to do my research.

Has nothing to do with you, apreciate all your help and patience. You sound like you obvioulsy sound like you knoe what your are tlaking bout.

just answer these few questions if you will and I will then put on my big boy pants and make a decsion.

Once again thnks for all your help !!!!!!!!!!!

[Allan]

I understand you're nervous and you don't need to keep apologizing. But you need to believe I'm not going to tell you to do something that will hurt you.

If I were you I'd follow my first suggestion above and restore the backup hive. Again, all programs you've installed since you got the system will have to be reinstalled - but you won't lose any data. If for some reason that doesn't work (the only reason would be if the backup hive is missing or corrupt), you can always do the repair install at that point. And no, if you follow the instructions for a repair install you will not lose any data.

[Allan]

By the way, once you're up and running again do yourself a favor. Get a disk imaging utility and use it on a regular basis. There are a number of good free such utilities if you don't want a retail product. Also, I'd suggest a second hd (internal or external) on which you can save the disk images as well as direct copies of any and all critical data files (including photos, etc). That way, in the event of any major system catastrophe in the future you won't have to worry about losing data files.