I am having a serious problem with my HP pc. A few days ago it kept restarting like every hour. It later told me some file is missing so it cannot boot up. I however used the repair console and it was fixed. Now there is another problem, I am getting an onscreen message that a registry file is either missing or corrupt.I dont quite remember all the words in the message but included were SHELL32.DLL. I am now in the recovery Console but dont know what to do. If I use CHKDSK or some other commands it tells me the Volume seems to contain one or more unrecoverable errors. I can format but I have some very important files that i dont want to lose.
Please give me some advice

Wayne, December 2006

Shell32.dll is a major part of the operating system, not part of the registry. Form the descrption you give of the PC crashing every hour or so it sounds as if you either have a overheating or disk problem. the only sure way to eliminate the disk is to reformat, but as you say thiss will remove your data. If you have access to anothe PC, I woul piggy back you Hard Disk into that PC and copy the data of. You could then return the disk to your original PC and reformat and install the system. It is likely that there is a physical fault with the disk, do the best solution may well be to purchase a new hard disk install the OS on that and have your original drive in as a slave so that you can copy the data of.

Hope this helps

IanR, April 2007