I have been using Vista for almost a year, then suddenly I get this message when I try to start it up...

STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The Registry cannot load the hive (file):
\systemroot\system32\Config\Software
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

Collecting date for crash dump….
Initializing disk for crash dump….

I googled it and found that it is a common problem but couldn't find a solution to it.

Anyone got any ideas please.

Thanks

Hi Rachel, I'm not sure if Vista has a System Restore feature like XP (I don't run Vista) but I suspect it does, and if so try to enter Safe Mode (I assume Vista has Safe Mode hopefully) and roll back to the closest date before this happened.

In the future I suggest using a register backup utility such as Erunt; it has saved my bacon several times.

I don’t see a lot of information on the Internet regarding this issue in Vista; even Microsoft has only four articles regarding this issue:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/defaul...mm=1&res=20
What you may have is a corrupted registry hive; so I’d say tread carefully and see if any of the following fixes your problem:
1- Boot your system, tab the F8 key, and then choose the “Last Known Good Configurations” option.
2- Perform a System Restore.
3- Do an over the top, or clean, install of Windows.
Before doing any of the above I recommend that you back up all your important data just in case; also I’d say don’t try option 3 until you fix your problem in the other thread with ranchhand, as there might be some conflicts between what we’re doing here and the other issue.