Microsoft KB Archive/167233

= Windows NT Boot Error Msg: Missing Last Known Good Menu =

Article ID: 167233

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Developer Edition
 * Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft BackOffice Small Business Server 4.0
 * Microsoft BackOffice Small Business Server 4.0a
 * Microsoft BackOffice Small Business Server 4.5

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This article was previously published under Q167233



SYMPTOMS
When your computer running Windows NT starts up, you may receive on of the following error messages:

Windows NT could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \%systemroot%\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEMHardware Profile/Last Known Good menu.

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Windows NT could not start because the following are missing or corrupt: \Winnt.sbs\system32\config\SYSTEMware profile/last known good menu.

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows NT setup.

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Windows NT could not start because the following are missing or corrupt: \Winnt\system32\config\SYSTEMware profile/last known good menu.

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows NT setup.

NOTE: %systemroot% is the installation directory for Windows NT.



CAUSE
Both the System and System.alt registry files are corrupted or missing.



RESOLUTION
Use the emergency repair disk (ERD) and select "inspect registry files" on the first menu selection screen. On the second menu selection screen select "replace SYSTEM configuration." This will replace the damaged System registry hive in the %systemroot%\System32\Config directory with the System hive on the ERD.

NOTE: Any system changes made after the ERD was last updated will be lost.

For additional information, please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: 103280

TITLE : Using an Emergency Repair Disk Created by Windows NT

If there is no ERD, a restore from a tape that contains a backup of the registry will be needed.

If you do not have an ERD or backup tape, you can recover the System hive by expanding it from the %systemroot%\repair directory using the following steps:  Install a parallel copy of Windows NT to an NTTemp directory. From a command line prompt, go to the repair directory of the original Windows NT installation.

For example: CD \winnt\repair

 Use Expand.exe to expand the System._ file to System.

Expand SYSTEM._ SYSTEM

 Copy the expanded SYSTEM file to the %systemroot%\System32\Config directory.

Copy System c:\winnt\system32\config

 Try to boot back into the original Windows NT installation.

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MORE INFORMATION
During the boot process, if the system hive is corrupted, Windows NT will try to use Last Known Good by accessing System.alt. If both the System and System.alt files are corrupted, Windows NT will not be able to boot.

Keywords: kberrmsg kbprb KB167233

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