Quickly fix a non-booting Windows machine

If you receive one of the below error messages after turning on your PC, its registry somehow got corrupted last time you used windows (Don't worry, it's easy to fix!)...

• Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
  \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

• Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
  \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE

• Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file):
  \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate

• System error: Lsass.exe
  When trying to update a password the return status indicates that the value provided as the current password is not correct.

This has happened to me a couple times, so I'm hoping others will find this of use to them. I used these directions from Microsoft to fix my problem the first time but realized they are way, way more complicated than the needed to be so I re-wrote it for myself.

Here is an overview of this simple fix procedure:

1. Boot off of a different disk so you can copy/delete files
2. Find the registry files from a recent restore point
3. Copy and rename them
4. Replace the corrupt registry files with these recent ones

Here we go:

1. Boot off a different disk
• If you’re an Intel Mac owner, just boot into the Mac OS
• Otherwise, if you don’t already have a bootable floppy disk, you can download a simple program to create one (on a different computer) from the first link below. Also read the instructions at the second link.
• http://1gighost.net/virginia/xpquick.exe
• http://www.bootdisk.com/txtfiles/xpquick.txt
2. Navigate to c:\System Volume Information\
• If you installed windows on the “d:\” or other drive, obviously you should be using that drive for these directions instead of the “c:\” drive.
3. This folder contains one or more folders starting with “_restore…”.
   For example: “_restore{87BD3667-3246-476B-923F-F86E30B3E7F8}”.
• If there is only one “_restore” folder, then open that one.
• If there is more than one, the newest one might be corrupt, so check their creation dates. If the newest one was created about the time your registry failed then open the second-newest. Otherwise just open the newest one.
4. This folder contains one or more folders starting with “RP…” such as “RP123”. These are “restore points”. Open the second-most recent one just to be safe.
5. This folder contains a “Snapshot” folder. Open it.
6. This folder contains the five files that made up the registry when this restore point was created:
• _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
• _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
7. Copy those five files to a temporary location, and rename the copies to:
• DEFAULT
• SECURITY
• SOFTWARE
• SYSTEM
• SAM
8. Use these five files to replace the corrupt registry files
• The corrupt ones are located in c:\windows\system32\config\
• Just delete or move (out of that folder) the five corrupt files, then copy or move (into that folder) the five restored ones.
9. That’s it. Restart and boot off your normal drive.