At boot up stuck on Windows logo and blue dashes

Hi,

I have an old laptop with XP Pro SP3 on it and have been going okay transferring video from DV tapes.

Because of only having USB 1, I have been taking the 169GB drive out and copying the files over to my Win 10 box. Done this a few times with no problem.

Just did it again but now stuck on the Windows logo with the blue dashes moving.

Took Safe mode option but just got a black screen with Windows XP (R) Build 2600.xpsl_sp3_qfe. 130704-0421 Service Pack 3 across the top with Safe Mode in each corner.

Tried Last successful and got.

Could not start because file is missing or corrupt.

windows\system32\config\system.

Can attempt to repair by starting with orig CD select 'r'.

I still have a few XP orig MS discs but none would be SP3. Also see a XP Recover Console boot CD I had obviously made onks ago but not sure for what machine, or can I take the drive out and replace the file?

I will mention I have another XP sp3 box which is working fine, maybe I can get files from there?

Can't believe it happening now as I was looking for a clone script to clone the drive before something like this happened.

Oh well ! Murphy's Law I guess. Hope for some help. Thanks

 

Well. I chose Previous mode, then safe mode but none resolved where they should and eventually the Safe mode got to the regular light blue Windows open screen.. .. Starting....... but it hung there for a couple of hours.

I took all devices off except the power and turned it off. Cold booted it, and after a few minutes it came to the regular logon screen. I logged in and it look like it is okay now.

I am at the mom net doing a True Image back up pf the o/s drive in case it happen again. Once it finishes I will see if I can still capture video.

 

Long time True Image user here as well. Luckily you were able to recover to to a working system. Murphy's law is exactly why I am a drive imaging evangelist.

 

since you can get to safe mode you can run checkdisk through the system without a disk, go to start/all programs/accessories/choose command prompt then type in chkdsk c: /r , then type y for yes as it will need to do checkdisk at the next restart, then restart the pc, checkdisk will run and you can view the report in the applications directory of Event Viewer under winlogon.

 

Thank you