[quote name=\'Las\' date=\'Aug 31 2004, 12:12 PM\']Running Windows XP:
I have a blue screen with an error message that says : "stop: c0000218 {registry file failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \systemroot\system32\config\software or its log or alternate........"
I called the computer company's tech support and went thru several steps with them.
In attempting to get into the Recovery Console, I come to a prompt that asks for "Administrator Password".
When I type in what I think is the password, it says that it is invalid.
The tech support people at the company are saying that since I do not know the password, I must "reinstall" Windows, which will totally obliterate all my documents. Unfortunately, I have no backup, and if I have to reinstall, I am going to lose lots of family photgraphs which are only on the computer.
I have a 3 yr old and 90% of his baby pics are on here.
What can I do

I cannot get into anything. Is there some way to remedy this without this drastic measure. I don't want to lose my pictures.
Can anyone help me?

[/quote]
OK, this is what you could try, in fact I know it will work on FAT32 file system, if you have NTFS maybe out of luck.
First of all you need a spare hard drive to do this, if you dont have one, borrow one and connect it to your pc, then
Go to this web site
http://www.oldfiles.streamlinetrial.co.uk/...ad/fastlynx.htmDownload the free version of fastlynx (fastlynx2.0)
Create a Boot Floppy and boot your pc from it, once booted
Insert the FastLKynx diskette, type FX and you're on your way to recover every single file which are in the old drive you cant boot from.
Good luck
P.S. if you are using NTFS, grab the NTFSreader from dos disk this is available here.
http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htmI've never used it, so I cant really tell you it will work, worth a try though, you are going to lose everything by reformatting, have nothing to lose to try this out.