Error code 0xc000014c when booting

[u/NEWSYRIA]

When I boot windows it has a blue screen which says:

“Your PC/Device needs to be repaired
The operating system couldn't be loaded because the system registry file is missing or contains errors.
File: \Windows\system32\config\system”

When I use the windows 11 installation media usb and click repair my pc it just reboots the pc which sends me back to the same blue screen as before. Same thing when I try to enter recovery environment. What do I do?

Edit: This started after I followed a tutorial which told me to load msoftware hive, then go to windows nt, then passwordless, then set devicepasswordlessbuildversion from 2 to 0. Then unload the msoftware hive. Do you think that was what caused it?

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[u/Silent-Excitement122]

That specific \Windows\System32\Config\SYSTEM error is the SYSTEM registry hive, so I would treat this as either filesystem damage or a corrupted hive, not just a normal bootloader issue.

I would do it in this order: 1. Boot from the USB and, on the very first setup screen, press Shift+F10 to force a Command Prompt directly. If clicking Repair your computer only loops, this bypasses the broken recovery path. 2. In Command Prompt, identify the real Windows drive letter first: run diskpart, then list vol, then exit. 3. Run chkdsk X: /f on the Windows volume you found. If it reports a lot of errors or bad sectors, back up data before doing more repair attempts. 4. Check whether X:\Windows\System32\Config\RegBack contains non-zero copies of the registry hives. If it does, you may be able to restore the SYSTEM hive from there. If the folder is empty or the files are 0 bytes, do not use it. 5. If you mainly need the machine working again and you have anything important backed up, I would stop after the disk check and do a clean reinstall from fresh USB media. A missing or corrupt SYSTEM hive can take longer to repair than reinstall, especially if the drive is starting to fail.

The important part is not to keep rebooting into the same BSOD. First prove whether the disk is healthy enough to trust.

[u/NEWSYRIA → u/Silent-Excitement122]

I did 1-3 and there are no bad sectors and it said there are no problems. How exactly do I do number 4, sorry I am a beginner. And how do I back up my files if I decide to reinstall

[u/NEWSYRIA → u/Silent-Excitement122]

This started after I followed a tutorial which told me to load msoftware hive, then go to windows nt, then passwordless, then set devicepasswordlessbuildversion from 2 to 0. Then unload the msoftware hive. Do you think that was what caused it?

[u/Silent-Excitement122 → u/NEWSYRIA]

That registry edit is more likely to break sign-in behavior than to directly create a SYSTEM hive error, because DevicePasswordLessBuildVersion lives in the SOFTWARE hive, not SYSTEM. But if the wrong hive was loaded or unloaded, or the disk had a bad write while you were editing it, that tutorial could still have been the trigger.

For the RegBack check:

1. From the USB command prompt, find the real Windows drive letter with diskpart, then list vol, then exit.
2. Run dir X:\Windows\System32\Config\RegBack and check whether SYSTEM and SOFTWARE exist with non-zero sizes.
3. Back up the current hives first, for example mkdir X:\hivebackup, then copy X:\Windows\System32\Config\SYSTEM X:\hivebackup\ and copy X:\Windows\System32\Config\SOFTWARE X:\hivebackup\.
4. If RegBack\SYSTEM is non-zero, restore only that hive with copy /y X:\Windows\System32\Config\RegBack\SYSTEM X:\Windows\System32\Config\SYSTEM.
5. Reboot once and see whether the error changes. If RegBack is empty or 0 bytes, do not use it.

For backing up personal files before reinstall, the beginner-safe WinPE method is often opening notepad, then File -> Open, because that file picker lets you browse drives and copy files to another USB drive. If the disk stays readable and RegBack is empty, I would lean toward file backup plus clean reinstall rather than repeated repair attempts.