How to Fix... "STOP: C0000218 {REGISTRY FILE FAILURE}"

I took a picture, once, of a woman's, er, upper thighs, with a hand - mine - holding a red-violet-slash-Tyrian-purple flower towards those, eh, upper thighs.  You may have seen it, or not.  I took another one, with her holding the flower over her face, leaving only her eyes, and I'll tell you, they're the most beautiful and haunting eyes you'll ever see, not that you will.
Anyway, she said I shouldn't bother with this post because no one comes on here for computer advice, but I figure if there's the off chance that someone encounters this problem, too, I can help them out.

So, you may get a blue screen of death one day in Windows XP, and it'll look like this:

STOP: C0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\System Root\System32\Config\Software or its log or alternate. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.
Beginning dump of physical memory.

There are several variations, but that's the gist. Now, if you don't have the XP installation disc and can't access the Recovery Console, you're pretty much screwed. Well, if you can get to a second computer and can burn an .iso file onto a disc, there's a way to fix it.

1. Go here and download the .iso file in the link titled "How To Create a bootable CD to access the Recovery Console".

2. Once it's unzipped, burn the file to a disc. If you don't have a program that does that already, you can try the Active@ ISO Burner 2.0, available here.

3. Switch on the computer and make sure you've selected it to boot from a disc. When you're prompted, start the Recovery Console.

5. You'll have to type in the administrator password. If you don't know it, it may just be a blank password, so just press Enter.

4. Now, type "chkdsk /r" and press Enter.

5. The computer will now scan the hard drive. This may take a while, so you can just go do something else and leave the computer on its own.

6. Once it's done scanning, check the results and follow the necessary instructions.

7. Hopefully, by now you'll be able to boot the computer normally and log into your Windows account. If so, give yourself a pat on the back, and be glad that you don't have to sell your favourite pair of shoes to pay for an Eastern European (or Middle Eastern, I can't tell accents that well) computer guy to spend five minutes reading this post and fifty-five dealing with his kids.

Also, seeing as I've just saved you those swanky shoes of yours, consider donating some money for my services and probably downloading all my stuff without being charged for it, you dirty poop deck-swabbing pirate, you.


Extra reference:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830084