How to Troubleshoot a STOP 0xC0000218 Error Message

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0

SYMPTOMS

A computer running Windows NT Server displays the following STOP error message:

   Stop 0xc0000218 (0xe11a30e8, 0x00000000, 0x000000000,0x00000000)
   UNKNOWN_HARD_ERROR

CAUSE

A Stop 0xc0000218 means that a necessary registry hive file could not be loaded. The obvious reason for this error is if the file is corrupt or missing. In this case, either the emergency repair disk (ERD) or a reinstallation is required. The registry files may have been corrupted because of hard disk corruption or some other hardware problem.

Some less obvious reasons are that the driver has corrupted the registry data while loading into memory, or the memory where the registry is loading has a parity error. In the latter case, turn off the external cache and check the memory chips.

RESOLUTION

Because the registry is corrupt, you must complete each of the following steps until the problem is resolved.

1. Attempt a "Load Last Known Good".

       - When Windows NT loads, press the space bar when the Load Last Known
         Good message appears.
   

2. Restore the registry files using the emergency repair disk (ERD) process.

       - To restore the files from the ERD, follow the instructions in the
         following Knowledge Base article:
   

            ARTICLE-ID: Q103280
            TITLE     : Using an Emergency Repair Disk Created by Windows NT
   
       - It may be beneficial to only restore the SOFTWARE and SYSTEM hives
         first, because restoring the SAM database from the ERD may replace
         user information.
   
       - If you do not have an emergency repair disk, add the creation of the
         ERD to your backup and recovery procedures. To create an ERD on a
         running version of Windows NT, run RDISK; the process takes about 30
         seconds to 1 minute.
   
   

3. Complete a parallel installation and restore the registry files from a tape backup.

       - Reinstall Windows NT into a separate directory
   

       - Restore the registry hives found in the %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\Config
         subdirectory.
   

       - If you do not have a tape backup, the backup of network servers and
         production workstations should be included as a critical part of
         running any production system.
   

   NOTE: If Windows NT is stored on a FAT partition, you could restore the files using another computer and copying the registry hive files into the directory above.

MORE INFORMATION

If the STOP error message was caused by a hardware problem (for example, bad sectors on the hard drive), the drive may require a low-level format, repartition, reformat, and a restore of the entire system from a tape backup to clear up the problem. Although this would be the most drastic case, if the STOP error message was caused by a physically bad sector, the sector must be relocated with a low-level format.

Keywords          : NTSrvWkst kberrmsg kbnetwork
Version           : WinNT:3.5,3.51,4.0
Platform          : winnt
Issue type        : kbhowto