XP Home boot problem

[Jim]

I am having a problem with booting up in Windows XP
Home. It says that the "window\system32\config\system"
file is either missing or corrupt. It will not go past
this file even in safe mode. I believe it is still there
so it must be corrupt. It is on an HP laptop and the
problem started when my son hit the off button because it
was unresponsive to any command. Is there a way to
correct this without reinstalling the "OEM" version of
Windows XP Home which will delete all of the data? This
is a HP OEM version of WindowsXP Home. It does not have
the repair console option on the CD. Is there a way to
repair this file and if so what would I change it to?

Thanks
Jim

 

[Will Denny]

Hi Jim

See if the following article helps:

"How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry That Prevents Windows XP from
Starting"
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307545

 

[Jim]

Will

The article states:
"Warning Do not use the procedure that is described in
this article if your computer has an OEM-installed
operating system."

Jim

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Sorry my fault. You can access the Recovery Console with a set of 6 floppy
disks:

"Windows XP Home Edition Utility: Setup Disks for Floppy Boot Install"
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...68-6e4f-471c-b455-bd5afee126d8&displaylang=en