JSI Tip 6325. 'Security Accounts Manager initialization failed' when you start Windows XP?

When you start Windows XP, you receive:

Security Accounts Manager initialization failed because of the following error: A device attached to the system is not functioning.
Error Status: 0xc0000001.
Please click OK to shut down this system and reboot into Safe Mode, check event log for more detailed information.

The same error occurs in Safe mode.

Your SAM (Security Accounts Manager) file (%SystemRoot%System32ConfigSAM) is damaged or missing.

To resolve the problem, you must restore the SAM. You cannot do this using any method that requires authentication.

If you have an ASR (Automated System Recovery) backup, see:

6020 How do I use the Automated System Recovery (ASR) floppy and media to recover Windows XP?

If you don't have an ASR backup:

- If you use the FAT32 file system, you can start the computer with Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows 98, open a command prompt, and run the following commands:

copy c:windowssystem32configsam c:tempbadsam.bak
delete c:windowssystem32configsam
copy c:windowsrepairsam c:windowssystem32configsam

. - If you use NTFS, you must use a parallel install to perform the above instructions from a CMD prompt.

NOTE: In the above, C:Windows is the drive and folder where Windows XP is installed.

NOTE: Once you can boot the damaged installation of Windows XP, you can restore the SAM from a newer system state backup, if available, or by using System Restore.

- If you cannot perform any of the above, you will need to perform a clean install and start over.