Windows NT Boot Error Msg: Missing Last Known Good Menu

Last reviewed: December 22, 1997
Article ID: Q167233

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When your computer running Windows NT starts up, the following error may be displayed:

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

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: Q103280
   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.

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          : ntboot ntregistry NTSrvWkst kberrmsg
Version           : WinNT:4.0
Platform          : winnt
Issue type        : kbprb kbtshoot

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Last reviewed: December 22, 1997
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