I'm trying to help a friend with their PC, which has a corrupt System32 file that prevents Windows from booting. Initially, I thought reinstalling Windows would be straightforward, but it's been a challenge. I've wiped the drive for a fresh install, but now I can't get Windows to install at all. When I boot from a USB flash drive, the BIOS shows up briefly, and then I'm left staring at a blank screen. The hardware is a Ryzen 5 1600 with an MSI B350M Bazooka motherboard and a 3050 GPU. I'm having trouble getting the Windows Media Tool to boot and I can't even reach the partition selection stage. The original error I faced was 0xc000014c, indicating a corrupted system registry file at windowssystem32configsystem. I've attempted recovery with CMD, used the USB media creation tool, changed boot settings to UEFI, disabled secure boot, reset CMOS, and set the USB as the first boot option. I'm hoping to upgrade to a Ryzen 7 3700x but need to get Windows working first. Any suggestions?
2 Answers
If I were you, I'd remove the hard drive and set it up in a different system. Clean it completely, ensuring all partitions are deleted, including any recovery partitions, then put it back in the original system.
You might want to check out GParted to wipe your drive entirely. Alternatively, Hiren's BootCD is a handy tool for this kind of work. Boot into that and run Diskpart /clean. Just be mindful that the ISO you're using to install might be bad. Use RUFUS with a proper Windows ISO, making sure to select GPT/UEFI for CMOS boot. Sometimes, for older systems, you may need to choose CSM (legacy boot) for the USB to work.
That makes sense, but I'm still seeing a blank screen after BIOS. I can't even reach the drive selection part yet.
Got it! Should I follow a specific process to do that? I'm familiar with building PCs but not this level of troubleshooting.