message: windows could not start...

[Guest]

my machine has been acting a bit "buggy" today (freezing, etc.) so i did a
restart. i then get a message (not in a window, but on a blank, black
screen) saying:

"windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt"
\windows\system32\config\system

i hit enter and the same message appeared. hit enter again and it started
up o.k. what's up with that? thanks.

 

[pat]

Your hard disk is probably trying to crash. Backup your
data in a hurry.

 

[Rock]

my machine has been acting a bit "buggy" today (freezing, etc.) so i did a
restart. i then get a message (not in a window, but on a blank, black
screen) saying:

"windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt"
\windows\system32\config\system

i hit enter and the same message appeared. hit enter again and it started
up o.k. what's up with that? thanks.

See these MS Knowledge Base articles:

"How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry That Prevents Windows XP from
Starting"
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=307545

How to Troubleshoot Registry Corruption Issues
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=822705