Question for the computer gurus around here

[boatboy63]

I have a 6 year old Toshiba laptop that developed registry errors last Saturday and cannot complete boot-up (blue screen). Have even tried in safe mode but no good. It is commonly known as a Registry C0000218 problem.

About the laptop...it has Windows XP Media Center Edition. I did buy it new and got an OEM Toshiba Recovery disk with it. My main problem is that the license authentication sticker is on the bottom of the laptop and thru the years, it has worn down to only 6 readable characters. Same deal with my serial number of the laptop. I called Toshiba knowing I had registered it. They claim they can't find a record of it. Said I could get the license number from inside the system diagnostics...I told them it wouldn't boot and they still tell me this.

I don't want to use the Recovery disk, as it will reformat and start everything over again. I have files, pics, and all other kinds of things on there that I don't want to lose. I kept thinking that a couple years ago, I had a similar problem and had to run a Repair operation on it. I know the Repair program was on a Windows DVD, but don't know which one. Toshiba told me that if I ran the Recovery disk, it does not give an option to Repair, but will do full Recovery only.

I even went so far as to call Microsoft. They said they didn't keep the key numbers for users, as they felt it was a security risk. I told him I had the OEM Toshiba Recovery disk. He asked for the serial number printed on the back toward the center of the disk. I started reading numbers and he told me it started with an "X". I don't have a number on it that starts with an X. He suggested calling Toshiba back and having them send another Recovery disk. What good would that do, considering it is a factory disk.

Before doing anything, I would like to pull the hdd out and copy it's entire contents so I could possibly save these files.

Any suggestions on how to do a Repair on this instead of complete Recovery? Also, if worse comes to worst, can I still get a new key for this from Microsoft? Thanks.

 

[jtakeman]

If it boots in safe mode do a scan disk or check disk and it might find the error. Repair would have to be an OEM XP media center bios matched for the Toshida.

Last bit would be to pull the Hard drive and install it as a slave in a working PC/laptop and back up you files. Then do the reinstall with the OEM disc.

 

[boatboy63]

It will not boot in safe mode either. It will blue screen in safe or normal. From what I read, it has to do with the registry losing the software registry or becoming corrupted in that area. I did buy a new laptop with Windows 7 Home. Can I still do as you said even though the old one has XP MCE?
Thanks.

 

[jtakeman]

Windows 7 disk will not work, Has to be a windows XP to do the repair/recovery.

You can slave the old drive to get the files off. Go to Staples or other PC store and get a 2 1/2 inch. USB drive case to put the old hard drive into. You will be able to connect drive to any working PC that has windows 2000 or higher(NTFS format)

 

[boatboy63]

Thank you. From what I understood in what I read, the only way I could do a repair on this would be with a complete XP MCE install disk. They said it could not be XP Pro or any sort of update disk. It had to be the full install disk. Is this true? I just don't understand why Toshiba would supply a factory burnt recovery disk and not even have the repair function built into it.

I do remember something on my old laptop that mentioned "recovery console" as it gets ready to boot like an old dual boot system I had. I tried clicking on that and it wouldn't do anything either.

 

[SlyFerret]

Did you recently install or uninstall software? If not, it isn't likely that the system would just happen to suddenly develop a registry problem.

It sounds like a hard drive problem to me. It might just be a bad sector or two on the drive, or it could be the drive getting ready to fail completely.

If you do re-install windows, make sure you don't do the quick format option. Doing a full format will give the system a chance to find and mark bad sectors on the drive. That may be enough to fix it.

If you continue to get blue screens during the install process after reformatting the drive, you can pretty much write off that drive as a goner.

-SF

 

[boatboy63]

No new software. I think I know what the problem is. The power adapter jack has been loose for awhile and sometimes would fall out without knowing it. This pretty much killed my 1 year old battery. The battery would only last for 10-15 minutes and gave no notice before it would just turn off. Wife was doing the Frontierville deal on Facebook (wish she got paid for that) and it shut off. She realized cord had fell out so she plugged it back in, rebooted, and claimed all was good. She then closed lid and walked away. About 30 minutes later, I pick it up and get a blue screen. Go figure. What was ironic is that I had ordered a new power adapter about 3 days before this happened. It came in 2 days after it crashed. Wife just laughed at me when she saw new adapter.

 

[REM505]

and you messed with all the advanced boot options?

 

[KB007]

Like others have said, pull the drive and copy your files off it. Once you've done that - install Ubuntu and kiss windows goodbye Before you copy all the files, once the drive is connected to another PC, do a full virus scan on it. Some viruses will overwrite OS files and can cause the type of bsod errors you are getting.

But seriously, once you've got the files off, try to start a brand new install and go as far as the repair, new install choice if you can. Do a repair, that will often fix up misc error in registry or bad os files.

 

[dave11]

This is going to sound hard, but its actually very easy, and the easiest solution of all. Download a "Live" version of any of the common linux operating systems, like Mint or Ubuntu, put that Live CD in the cdrom of your computer, and boot it up. It will load a working OS into RAM, and run from the CD. It will allow you to easily access all your windows files, and copy them to CD/DVD. It will not change your hard drive, unless you tell it to. Then you can reinstall windows.

There are a couple other very simple steps to it, but I or any of the other linux users around here can walk you through it.

 

[TMonter]

I have a 6 year old Toshiba laptop that developed registry errors last Saturday and cannot complete boot-up (blue screen). Have even tried in safe mode but no good. It is commonly known as a Registry C0000218 problem.

About the laptop...it has Windows XP Media Center Edition. I did buy it new and got an OEM Toshiba Recovery disk with it. My main problem is that the license authentication sticker is on the bottom of the laptop and thru the years, it has worn down to only 6 readable characters. Same deal with my serial number of the laptop. I called Toshiba knowing I had registered it. They claim they can't find a record of it. Said I could get the license number from inside the system diagnostics...I told them it wouldn't boot and they still tell me this.

I don't want to use the Recovery disk, as it will reformat and start everything over again. I have files, pics, and all other kinds of things on there that I don't want to lose. I kept thinking that a couple years ago, I had a similar problem and had to run a Repair operation on it. I know the Repair program was on a Windows DVD, but don't know which one. Toshiba told me that if I ran the Recovery disk, it does not give an option to Repair, but will do full Recovery only.

I even went so far as to call Microsoft. They said they didn't keep the key numbers for users, as they felt it was a security risk. I told him I had the OEM Toshiba Recovery disk. He asked for the serial number printed on the back toward the center of the disk. I started reading numbers and he told me it started with an "X". I don't have a number on it that starts with an X. He suggested calling Toshiba back and having them send another Recovery disk. What good would that do, considering it is a factory disk.

Before doing anything, I would like to pull the hdd out and copy it's entire contents so I could possibly save these files.

Any suggestions on how to do a Repair on this instead of complete Recovery? Also, if worse comes to worst, can I still get a new key for this from Microsoft? Thanks.

I never did get why they put the windows authentication sticker on the bottom instead of inside the hard drive bay if possible.

Do you have access to another computer where you can hook up this hard drive? If so you might be able to recover the key from the hard drive with several key recovery programs from the registry on the hard drive of the laptop. I've had to do this on a couple occasions.

 

[northwinds]

This is going to sound hard, but its actually very easy, and the easiest solution of all. Download a "Live" version of any of the common linux operating systems, like Mint or Ubuntu, put that Live CD in the cdrom of your computer, and boot it up. It will load a working OS into RAM, and run from the CD. It will allow you to easily access all your windows files, and copy them to CD/DVD. It will not change your hard drive, unless you tell it to. Then you can reinstall windows.

There are a couple other very simple steps to it, but I or any of the other linux users around here can walk you through it.

Excellent suggestion. I dual boot ubuntu and vista, but hardly ever use vista anymore.

 

[boatboy63]

and you messed with all the advanced boot options?

I did. I hit F8 while attempting to boot, went to safe mode and it would still blue screen. Tried that a couple times and same thing each time with the C0000218 Registry Error. Have tried using the last known good config and still same thing. It just can't get past this no matter what I have tried. I don't want to keep trying to boot it under this situation, as I know it isn't helping anything. Thanks.

 

[boatboy63]

Like others have said, pull the drive and copy your files off it. Once you've done that - install Ubuntu and kiss windows goodbye Before you copy all the files, once the drive is connected to another PC, do a full virus scan on it. Some viruses will overwrite OS files and can cause the type of bsod errors you are getting.

But seriously, once you've got the files off, try to start a brand new install and go as far as the repair, new install choice if you can. Do a repair, that will often fix up misc error in registry or bad os files.

The repair is my problem. When I called Toshiba, they told me that the repair function is not included on the OEM Recovery disk, which is what I have. They said I would have to use a "Full Install" XP MCE dvd to be able to use the Repair function. Said it had to specifically be the full MCE version or it would not do a repair. Don't understand why they would include an OEM disk without the repair function.

 

[boatboy63]

This is going to sound hard, but its actually very easy, and the easiest solution of all. Download a "Live" version of any of the common linux operating systems, like Mint or Ubuntu, put that Live CD in the cdrom of your computer, and boot it up. It will load a working OS into RAM, and run from the CD. It will allow you to easily access all your windows files, and copy them to CD/DVD. It will not change your hard drive, unless you tell it to. Then you can reinstall windows.

There are a couple other very simple steps to it, but I or any of the other linux users around here can walk you through it.

Thanks Dave. Never have done anything with linux before, but have always wondered about it. The hdd in that computer is an 80 gig with about 50 of it used. If I run it from CD/DVD rom, will I be able to copy the whole hdd to dvd's without having the Live linux in it? I am just afraid of doing something like this that I am not familar with and screwing something up. I have tax returns, funeral pictures, and all other kinds of files on it that I don't want to take a chance of losing. I know...I should have backed it all up a long time ago, but you know how it goes.

 

[boatboy63]

I never did get why they put the windows authentication sticker on the bottom instead of inside the hard drive bay if possible.

Do you have access to another computer where you can hook up this hard drive? If so you might be able to recover the key from the hard drive with several key recovery programs from the registry on the hard drive of the laptop. I've had to do this on a couple occasions.

I did buy a new Toshiba laptop and it has Windows 7 Home Premium. Unfortunately, it also has the COA key sticker on the bottom too. I thought about peeling it off and sticking it to the inside of the hdd cover too, but I was thinking, these labels will self destruct or make everything unreadable if you try to peel them. Did already write the key number down in the new owner's manual.

My new laptop has a 320 gig hdd and I was thinking about copying the complete hdd from the old one over to it in case I screwed something up. I live in Hickville USA and in order to even find a USB enclosure to put the old hdd in is like pulling teeth. I will have to either order one or spend an hour each way getting to a town where I can buy one.

 

[BrotherBart]

I would buy a cheap external USB hard drive enclosure and put the drive in it and hook it to another machine to copy the stuff off the drive. Last enclosure I bought was like eight bucks from walmart.com.

After you have the stuff copied put it back in the laptop and do the format.

 

[dave11]

This is going to sound hard, but its actually very easy, and the easiest solution of all. Download a "Live" version of any of the common linux operating systems, like Mint or Ubuntu, put that Live CD in the cdrom of your computer, and boot it up. It will load a working OS into RAM, and run from the CD. It will allow you to easily access all your windows files, and copy them to CD/DVD. It will not change your hard drive, unless you tell it to. Then you can reinstall windows.

There are a couple other very simple steps to it, but I or any of the other linux users around here can walk you through it.

Thanks Dave. Never have done anything with linux before, but have always wondered about it. The hdd in that computer is an 80 gig with about 50 of it used. If I run it from CD/DVD rom, will I be able to copy the whole hdd to dvd's without having the Live linux in it? I am just afraid of doing something like this that I am not familar with and screwing something up. I have tax returns, funeral pictures, and all other kinds of files on it that I don't want to take a chance of losing. I know...I should have backed it all up a long time ago, but you know how it goes.

Yes, you can do that, though it might be tricky with only one cdrom or dvdrom. Usually it will prompt you to put the live cd back in if it needs something, though that sometimes isn't ideal. Plus you'd need to use a new DVD for every 4.7 GB of data, but do you really need to recover all 50 GB? If so, you'd end up using 11 DVD discs. Data that isn't movies generally doesn't use much space--are these movie files?

But yes, it could be done, you would just need to decide what data you wanted on each disc.

Better way--If you have a separate means of storage, meaning another hard drive, or usb stick etc. that can take 50GB of data, you can hook that up to your computer too, then run a linux live cd, and you should be able to transfer it that way.

Or you could create a separate partition on your hard drive using the linux live cd, using the empty space currently there, then put 30 GB of data on it, then reinstall windows on the 50GB partition. Also easy to do, but with slight risk of data loss. Comes down to whether you really need to save all 50 GB of data.

Safest would be a separate storage device easily plugged in ,like a USB stick, and transfer everything to it. Linux will read you windows data no problem, even without the registry key, assuming you never encrypted it.

 

[dave11]

I would buy a cheap external USB hard drive enclosure and put the drive in it and hook it to another machine to copy the stuff off the drive. Last enclosure I bought was like eight bucks from walmart.com.

After you have the stuff copied put it back in the laptop and do the format.

He could do this too, if he has another computer at his disposal, with 50 GB of available storage, and if he doesn't mind removing the first hard drive, and putting it back, though that's not hard. Need to make sure though whatever you plan to plug the drive into is the same interface, namely IDE or SATA. Never bought one of the enclosures so I don't know if they are universal or not. Also need to make sure they will take the smaller (laptop) size drives.

 

[bfunk13]

Fill with cement and use as boat anchor, buy Apple imac.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[dave11]

Fill with cement and use as boat anchor, buy Apple imac.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Hey! So you're one of the eight people in the world who uses a Mac desktop? Pleased to finally meet one.

LOL--but sorry. True gurus use linux. Rock solid, and totally free. And I can use anyone's hardware.

I've helped many former Apple Slaves see the light. Give it a try.

 

[bfunk13]

Fill with cement and use as boat anchor, buy Apple imac.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Hey! So you're one of the eight people in the world who uses a Mac desktop?

ABSOLUTELY!
You could not pay me to go back to pc.
4 years without a hitch. Nothing, zilch, nada. Not one virus, hardware or software problem.
A neighborhood full of kids and a wife constantly doing whatever online, used and abused, still tickin' like a clock.

Give it a try? Naah, i will stay right here. But thanks for your concern.

 

[heat seeker]

Make it nine people - I am using an iMac - love it, absolutely no problems. I don't mind PC's, it's Windows I can't stand!

 

[dave11]

Fill with cement and use as boat anchor, buy Apple imac.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Hey! So you're one of the eight people in the world who uses a Mac desktop?

ABSOLUTELY!
You could not pay me to go back to pc.
4 years without a hitch. Nothing, zilch, nada. Not one virus, hardware or software problem.
A neighborhood full of kids and a wife constantly doing whatever online, used and abused, still tickin' like a clock.

Give it a try? Naah, i will stay right here. But thanks for your concern.

It's a free country of course. Folks are free to spend thousands of $ on Apple products, or spend zero dollars on linux, which does the same thing.

To each their own. But those who prefer not to overspend should try linux.

As an aside, I don't know of any mechanism where Apple can help the OP here. Got any Live Mac discs that will rescue his system?

 

[webbie]

Hey! So you're one of the eight people in the world who uses a Mac desktop? Pleased to finally meet one.

LOL--but sorry. True gurus use linux. Rock solid, and totally free. And I can use anyone's hardware.

I've helped many former Apple Slaves see the light. Give it a try.

PC in 1980.
Mac since 1984 - never had a single virus problem in all that time!

Mac's don't serialize system disks, etc. so they don't check in with the mother ship and turn you down. Anyway, macs=unix since about 10 years ago. As far as true gurus, most of the folks at google use macs. I think that should speak for itself.

So, only 6 more to find in the world. Yep, I'm a fan boy. Some seem to have missed the message that Apple is now the most successful and largest company in the world. Even that does not change the doubters......

Well, my consolation is that while my friends were all fixing their computers and trying to figure out how to use them (it builds character, right?), I was instead forging years ahead of them and making money doing something other than tech support

I must shamefully admit, though, that I bought some microsoft stock a few weeks ago. Then again, I own 6X as much apple. I sorta like those dinosaur companies like microsoft...with the dividend and all. I'm a conservative guy.

OK, hopefully the problem was solved earlier in the thread. Yep, Unix is great...I use it on my hearth.com server (CentOS, but previously gentoo and FreeBSD). It sometimes runs for years without a reboot.....even a Mac can't do that.