After restoring an ghost/acronis image on your Citrix server your getting the message:

msgina.dll could not be loaded, MSGINA.DLL could not be found, please contact your system admininstrator to restore the original dll or to replace it 

The GUI shows something like this:

So how is this possible? Isn’t a ghost/acronis image an EXACT duplication of a disk?

First lets explain a bit about Windows and driveletters:

Did you ever noticed that if you plugged in your USB stick and remapped the driveletter, the next time you would use the USB stick again on this box, the same driveletter is assigned? This is because Windows keeps a list of attached disks and driveletter. Sound goods!

So whats happening?

Well, i think that since ghost rewrites the Master Boot Record, Windows recognizes the disks as NEW disks (and gives them a new UID in the registry). So Windows thinks it’s a new disk and gives it the first available driveletter, which is mostly C:
The strange thing is that i made a backup using a linux distro with NTFSCOPY and the same error occurs (and this software doesn’t rewrite the MBR) but somehow Windows DOES change something.
Since 99% of the Windows servers do have the first disk/partition assigned to C: this isn’t a problem.

But i have Citrix installed, i don’t have a C: drive, i use M: !?!??!

Exactly, but right now your have an C: (and maybe D:?) drive, thats why Windows fails to load. Userinit.exe is the process responsible for loading msgina.dll which fails (you probably noticed :))

How can i fix this?

Boot using a BartPE disk (Made by another Dutch hero ;). You don’t need any plugins EXCEPT for the raid array driver you might be using (read the documentation), the basic disks will do. Follow these steps:

1) Boot using the PE disk, don’t load network support, you don’t need this
2) Click start/run and fire up “regedit”
3) Choose “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” and choose file and load hive
4) Load the file: C:\Windows\system32\config\software
5) Navigate in the loaded hive to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Winlogon\Userinit
6) Change the value M:\WINNT\system32\userinit.exe to userinit.exe
7) Boot the machine in safe mode
8) Now you can login succesfully
9) Start regedit
10) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\MountedDevices
11) Delete the entry(s) with driveletter M: (and everything what follows, like N:  O:)
12) Change the entry \DosDevices\C:  to \DosDevices\M: 
13) Do this for any other entry (depends on how much partitions/disks you have, you get the point)
14) After this, close regedit and reboot your box
15) Leave a reply to this post if it helped you out (or not) so you keep me motivated putting the solutions online 🙂

(p.s. I would make a new image after step 7, if you would restore this new image you only have to reassign the driveletters in safe mode and your good to go)
Don’t hesitate to leave a reply or question, i will receive your reply faster then an average phonecall would 🙂

3 Responses to “Msgina.dll could not be loaded, MSGINA.DLL could not be found, please contact your system admininstrator to restore the original dll or to replace it”

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3. Rayford Ditsch Says:
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