Operating System : MSWindows 7 Home Premium
Situation : Windows has recently installed some updates and when it rebooted it showed "Preparing to configure Windows - Do not turn off your computer". This will go on for few hours and nothing is done. Switching off and on the computer and the message will appear again.
Solution : tips from Dzomlija @ Sevenforum.com (for more details)
Using this tip, you don't have the risk of losing data by doing clean install of your operating system.
Press F8 after you switch on your computer, and this will go to a menu where you choose "Repair your computer"
Next Go to "System Recovery Options" , select "startup repair" and let Windows try to repair the startup problems. If it could not be repaired, then choose "View advanced options for system recovery and support" which will bring you back to "System Recovery Options" Menu again, and this time choose "Command Prompt"
(words in RED are what you have to type, <enter> means pressing the enter key)
Type c: <enter>
Type dir <enter> to see whether you can see Program files, Windows, Users folder there. If all these folders are there, you are on the system drive.
Type cd \windows\system32\config <enter>
Type dir <enter> to check whether you have RegBack folder, Default, Sam, Security, Software, System files there.
Type md mybackup <enter> to create a backup folder
Type copy *.* mybackup <enter> Press A to allow all backups to be overwritten if any
Type cd regback <enter>
Type dir <enter> this will view the content of the folder Regback. Check the file size of Default,Sam,Security, Software, System. if any of them are 0 bytes, then you should not proceed with the following steps. You need to seek an alternative method of recovering your system.
Type copy *,* .. <enter> this will copy all the backup files to \windows\system32\config, press A to allow all file to be overwritten
Type exit <enter> to close the command prompt
Click restart button to reboot your computer, and your system should boot normally.
Please note that the above instructions must be followed correctly or you might damage your OS installation. If this does not fix your problem, you might have some different issues that cannot be fixed by manually restoring the registry.
