Can KPF4 corrupt system files?

I've used KPF4 on my desktop for two years without incident. Two months ago I installed it on a laptop. About a month later the system crashed with the following error:

Registry cannot load the hive:
\systemroot\system32\config\SOFTWARE
or it's alternate......... (or something like that)

I could not repair it and ended up doing a fresh format/install of everything. That was 30 days ago.

Today, the trial version of KPF4 expired. All was well until I plugged in a thumb drive. I then got a BSOD with the above error again.

Running W2K with all updates, NOD32, AAW, SSD.

The only thing I can think of is KPF4 because the problem occurred both times at 30 days.

TIA;
Doug

 

I suppose it could be Kerio doing something weird to the registry. You never know.

Best thing to do is when you reformat, after you get things installed and configured (except the firewall), then do an image of your HD. It will save you many headaches and hours of work down the road when something goes wrong.

You might post in the Kerio forum as well, if you haven't already done so.

 

Yep, should have done a ghost image. Live and learn.

Next question. Windows will not perform a repair because the backup files are also kaput. However, I can get into the directory using the command line repair utility. Is there some kind of file set I could use to replace the corrupt ones? Microsoft mentions this but isn't explicit about where to find them. I would think they reside on the original W2K disk, but why then wouldn't the fast repair utility find them?

Perhaps you could direct me to a forum that will assist me with this repair. I have two critical files that were to be transferred to the thumb drive that are more valuable than the laptop itself. And the command line utility doesn't allow copies to removable media.

Doug

 

I'm not sure how to go about fixing things, but you could try running SFC. Window's system file checker. I have Win2k, but it should be in Xp also. If you do a cmd window and then run sfc /? you'll get the list of options. Last time I used it I think I ran sfc /SCANNOW and it scans all your windows protected system files and so on, then if one needs replacing, it should prompt you for your Windows disk. I think that's how it works in 2k, but Xp may be different, don't know for sure.

If something is hosed, I usually prefer a fresh reformat and install, that way I know I'm getting a nice clean system again. But for many, that's not practical or even possible.

 

Hi, doug6949

Have you tried XP Dos BootDisk:- BootDisk


Take Care,
TheQuest

 

Dang! Never thought of that.

However, I did find enough info on the MS site to use the manual (command line) repair utility. I had forgotten just how much time it takes to type 15 lines of dos commands. And, of course I had to learn about something called systemroot.

Anyhoo, I managed to copy the registry files from the repair directory over the bad files in config and it started up fine. Why MS didn't just put an option in the repair utility to do this with a keystroke is beyond me. It certainly makes more sense than the next option, which is to wipe the drive and reinstall.


Doug

 

I've installed/uninstalled KPF 4.2x several times on my machine. After uninstallation, I've made sure to purge the registry of all references to Kerio, including legacy entries. Just uninstalling the application shouldn't have corrupted anything.