lsass.exe missing on startup

[atct86]

I am getting an error on startup saying lsass.exe is missing. Then i click ok, and the computer never boots.

Any idea what this is?

[atct86]

the exact error is "The application has failed to initialize properly(0xc0000142). Click ok to terminate the application". Then in the menu it says "lsass.exe - Application error".

Any help ASAP would be appreciated.

[Kyocera]

There's some info on google about that error, you might want to cipher through some of it to determine what best suits your scenario. Try booting into safe mode and doing a system restore, provided you're running XP.

[atct86]

I am running XP.

I tried safe mode, and i get the same exact problem.

I would try the system restore with the blue access ibm button, however i dont know if it would erase the stuff in the my documents folder.

[Kyocera]

Well, unfortunately if you can't boot into safe mode you are somewhat out of luck. You do have the option of restoring the operating system if you still have the recovery partition on the hard drive, this will however remove all data on the drive now. You may be able to pull the documents off the drive by booting into the recovery partition, select restore the system and (i can't remember the exact wording) select recover data from a folder on the current drive or something like that.

[atct86]

I tried putting the HD into an external case, and i cam able to see the users names however it wont let me access any of the my documents folders. It says access is denied.

How can I get around this?

[Waukeen]

Did you try booting to the command console (with the xp cd), and try to expand a new copy of lsass.ex_ to the system32 folder. It might work

[atct86]

I gave up trying to fix it, and just used system restore.

[Waukeen]

System restore sometimes works wonders.