System Registry problem

[Aisling]

Last two boots, I've had this message: "One of the
files containing the system's Registry data had to be recovered by use of a
log of alternate copy. The recovery was successful."

First time, it was on the welcome/login screen; second time, it was on the desktop.

Everything seems to be running fine, except for whatever-this-is. Googling suggests it's probably bad memory. I ran a virus scan before shutting down after the first message, so I'm pretty sure it's not that.

I'm running Windows XP.

Are there any solutions besides playing musical memory sticks?

Thank you.

[sms001]

a software memory tester, but switching out the mem would prolly be faster....

[Aisling]

I don't want to (and can't really afford to) replace all four sticks; could I just take them out one at a time until I find the bad one, and replace it alone? This would, I know, require possibly several reboots, but it shouldn't hurt the computer to run on three instead of four right?

[Amadan]

Memtest

http://www.memtest.org/

Download an iso (~4mb), burn to cd and boot off it. Best bet is to disconnect the hdd cables and test each stick individually.

[Aisling]

Thanks for the recommendation.

[Imprl59]

Check your system log for errors on the hard drive.
Control Panel
Administrator tools
Event Viewer
System

I see that a lot when the hard drive starts to get flakey. Also give your motherboard a good visual once over looking for capacitors that are swolen and / or leaking.

[Aisling]

The only warnings from yesterday are from WinDefend, warning me about software changes.

Also, it's stopped happening. I don't know why, but I'm not going to complain. :P

[sms001]

Has it been hot, but is now cool, in the room where your computer is?

Can't believe none of us said this, but if there are unexplainable registry errors, hard disk failure is certainly in the mix of possibilities, so make sure you are THOROUGHLY backed up.

[Aisling]

There haven't been any major temp. fluctuations lately, no, and anyway the problem seems to have corrected itself now. And yes, I made sure everything is backed up after I got the first error, but thank you for reminding me.

[Amadan]

If you want to test your HDD try using Seatools http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...loads/seatools

Most HDD OEMs have tools but Seatools tends to work on them all, although it won't give diag codes for anything but Seagate drives.

[Aisling]

Thanks Amadan. Downloaded and ran the short tests; everything's passed. So I think I can rule that out as a problem?

[Amadan]

If you can afford the time run the long test, it'll take a couple of hours.

If a machine fails the long test it'd be enough for me to return a machine as faulty and offer an exchange/repair (I'm an instore tech). Some might think it's being overly cautious but personally I feel once a drive is starting to fail it will eventually go completely.

Touch wood I've never really had HDD problems myself as I probably upgrade far too frequently (G/F with a major downloading/tv recording habit who won't delete anything makes for frequent multi TB upgrades).

Is this a laptop? My personal experience is that laptop HDDs fail far more frequently (I've seen 4 this week) that desktop ones, probably due to getting knocked when spinning and lower fault tolerances. Although with a machine running XP it's more than possible an age related issue.

If the drive is one the way out small drives aren't too expensive and if you have access to a computer with more than one SATA/IDE port and a DVD drive you can clone the old drive onto the new one saving you from having to reinstall. Personally I'd recommend Norton Ghost (I use a Ghost 11 boot cd) but if you can't get hold of it / afford to buy it (not too keen on the new versions) I'm sure I can dig out a link to a FOSS alternative.

[Aisling]

It's a desktop, and not yet 3 years old. I just haven't bothered to upgrade from XP yet, so I used the version I bought ages ago to upgrade my last computer (which lasted me 8 years). No bumps or bruises, and like I said, after 2 boots showing the error I haven't had another problem since.

Is a long test really likely to give a different result than a short?

[Aisling]

Just passed the Long Generic.