I have had utterly no help online regarding this. Pretty much seems to
be a hackers' only issue. However, I have a legit copy of WinXP Pro &
during the installation of a game, the installer corrupted the
system.dat file & the machine won't boot. Attempts to boot via *ANY*
copy of Windows CDs yields the same error; other CDs & even floppies
boot but I can't get any of the utilities to run. This is a
maddeningly frustrating error & I'm not particularily interested in
having to hex-edit my blinking boot sector to get the dumb thing to
boot. Any help out there? Tx!

Code 5 suggests access is denied.
If it is a master boot record probvlem????
Any Win 98 or Win Me boot disk:
At A: type fdisk /mbr and press enter.
Then remove the floppy and restart your PC.

However, it is more likely to be:
Your boot.ini file and or ntdetect.com and or ntldr.

"Geoffrey Webb" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I have had utterly no help online regarding this. Pretty much seems to
> be a hackers' only issue. However, I have a legit copy of WinXP Pro &
> during the installation of a game, the installer corrupted the
> system.dat file & the machine won't boot. Attempts to boot via *ANY*
> copy of Windows CDs yields the same error; other CDs & even floppies
> boot but I can't get any of the utilities to run. This is a
> maddeningly frustrating error & I'm not particularily interested in
> having to hex-edit my blinking boot sector to get the dumb thing to
> boot. Any help out there? Tx!

Hard to believe you can boot from other CD's but not the Windows CD -
most bootable CD's including MS's use the same code to boot from the
CD? If you can boot from say a Norton AV or Utilities CD, then you
can boot from the WinXP CD - unless it's bootleg/pirate - I know you
say it's legit, but your results says otherwise.

What you need to do is boot from the WinXP CD, go into the recovery
console, and run fixboot and/or fixmbr to correct any boot file(s)
and/or Master Boot Record problems.

--

Star Fleet Admiral Q @ your service
--------------------------------------------------------
"Geoffrey Webb" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I have had utterly no help online regarding this. Pretty much seems
to
> be a hackers' only issue. However, I have a legit copy of WinXP Pro
&
> during the installation of a game, the installer corrupted the
> system.dat file & the machine won't boot. Attempts to boot via *ANY*
> copy of Windows CDs yields the same error; other CDs & even floppies
> boot but I can't get any of the utilities to run. This is a
> maddeningly frustrating error & I'm not particularily interested in
> having to hex-edit my blinking boot sector to get the dumb thing to
> boot. Any help out there? Tx!