Windows Will Not Start

[Guest]

I can home from work and fired up my Dell PC running Windows XP Home with SP2
only to be greeted with this message: "Windows could not start because the
following file is missing or corrupt: \windows\system32\config\system". The
additional information provided was I could attempt to repair this file by
starting Windows Setup using the original setup CD-ROM.

Since this is a Dell and all they provide is a reinstall disk, I can't
figure out how to get it to start up when I turn the computer on. Is there a
way to create an XP start up disk to run from the A: drive? I have an MS-DOS
boot disk but can't access the C: or other drives with it so I probably don't
have it configured right.

Any suggestions on how I can get beyond the error screen and get the PC back
in operation will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

You need to use the procedure described here:

How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry [Q307545]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545

If you are unable to use your Dell CD to load the Recovery Console, you will
need to use the boot floppy set. This article I wrote may help you in doing
this:
http://www.rickrogers.org/fixes.htm#Boot floppy

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org