Computer won't load up Windows XP PRO

[Guest]

My son has Win XP PRO on his computer. It was installed at a computer shop
that is no longer in business. (He did not give me the disk for the XP PRO)
He was playing a game that was saying about changing configurations, so he
did. Now he has trouble with his computer. His computer restarted itself and
when it did the screen said....We apologize for the inconvience, but Windows
did not start up successfully. A recent hardware or software change may have
caused this problem. I went in and did a system restore back to the beginning
of the month, that did not do anything.
When I pressed the F8 key...I also did the Last known good
configuration(your most recent settings that worked)...but that did not do
anything either.
I don't know what else to do, I don't have a disk and I don't know anything
about configurations. So I hope someone can help me with this problem.
Thank you,

 

[Rich Barry]

Without a WinXP CD there's very little left to do. One thing you can
try if you feel comfortable with it is to remove your
son's hard drive and connect it to your PC as slave. Then go into his
C:\Windows\System32\Config Folder. The five
registry files you want are Sam, Software, System, Security and
Default. Delete them. Then go to C:\System Volume\Restore\you will see a
number of RP folders. Those are your restore points. Open RP folder third
from last and then
open Snapshot folder. The first five files should be the registry files.
Copy them all and paste them into the Config folder.
That should give you a working registry. Say a prayer and good luck.
If by any chance there are no restore points then go to
C:\Windows\Repair Folder. In there are the original five registry
files from when XP was first installed. Perform the same procedure. If
that works your son will have to reinstall most of his
programs and games.