I have a Dell desktop computer with Windows Vista. Recently I got the Blue Screen informing me of the following,

STOP: c0000218 (registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

I have tried everything (safe mode, booting from a CD Rom, etc) and always get this message. The last thing I did was use Windows Recovery and also got error messages trying to re-load from a previous save. I have found a lot of information out there about how to fix this with XP, BUT nothing on how to fix it with Vista.

I really do not want to have to re-install Vista and wipe out all of my files, etc and start over. Is there a way to fix the registry error? If not, and re-installing is my only option, how can I retrieve existing data from my hard drive before starting over???

What is the exact Dell model?

You have tried the DVD that came with it with all its recovery options?

As to retrieving data this is quite simple basically. You just need another functioning desktop to hook the drive up to either internally or ex.