an error occurred during directory enumeration

[peterfaj]

I need help!
My older PC recently won't boot into windows. It says there is something wrong with file C:\windows\system32\config\system and I should put the original Windows XP cd in the cd-rom drive, boot it and press "r" on the first screen. "R" takes me to repair console. Dir command there says that C:\windows\system32\config\system is empty, so all files are either broken or gone.
I wanted to delete C:\windows\system32\config directory with rmdir command and then copy config directory from my newer PC (via usb flash key). But when I tried to delete config dir on the old PC it said "Directory not empty", so I tried to empty it with "delete C:\windows\system32\config\system\*" but it said "an error occurred during directory enumeration". It says that when I try anything else too.
Help, please.

Thanks in advance.

[vellu]

Whenever that particular file "SYSTEM" gets damaged, the OS is beyond repair. At minimum you will need to do a repair installation (that's right, a full install, the repair console cannot help in this case) on top of the old os (not recommended, might not even fix the problem) or a full reinstall of everything.

Hope you've made backups...

Ps. There's another file in the same location called "SOFTWARE". The two files contain critical information about your system and are unique to a specific machine (so copying from someone else doesn't help). SYSTEM file holds information about your hardware, and SOFTWARE naturally about what you have installed. As you why you cant see the files, is propably due to the fact that they are both hidden and protected system files and therefore do not normally show up in directory listings.

Also you won't be able to delete the directory itself for the same reason (also, if you did, then your os really wouldn't work anymore).

[peterfaj]

There is a systemprofile dir in config dir, which I realized it's system specific (didn't know about other files), but I thought I'd give it a try. I wonder what "an error occurred during directory enumeration" means.

[prince1142003]

Was your file system NTFS by any chance?

If so, it's likely that the NTFS DLL that Windows uses to decipher data from the NTFS file system is missing. If that's the case, a repair installation of Windows will fix the issue. You will lose all your system configurations and such, but no files or programs should be harmed.

In order to do a repair installation, boot with the Windows XP Setup disc, but don't go into the Recovery Console. When Setup has loaded, you'll be given a set of locations to install Windows to. Make sure that your old hard drive configuration still exists!!! Otherwise you WILL lose data! Then select that partition/space and choose to Repair Windows Installation. At no point should you choose to delete or format the selected partition. If Repair Installation is not available, then you're out of luck, as Windows Setup doesn't recognize a pre-existing Windows installation on the partition.

[peterfaj]

I went for reinstalling XP without formating and when it came to the reboot part (where you reboot the pc and installation continues after that) it just booted into windows normally, just like it was before.