Need help lads!!

Kavs

Well where do i start!!
K ,My machine runs XP on an 80GB(NTFS) Drive using the SATA converter supplied wit new motherboard(ABIT NF7-S) ,everything was going fine until I powered it up about an hour ago.
For no apparent reason its now telling me the following

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

You can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the original setup CD-Rom
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair"

Now this is the second time this has happened in two months and i can't for the life of me figure it out! Last time I had to fire up an old 10gb drive install win98,then convert to NTFS and then install XP so i could see my files on the 80GB and then backup all critical files to the 10GB. Then I put a fresh install of XP back onto the 80GB and everything was sweet till today!!!

First question I have is how do u make an XP Boot disk???

Second ceist:How can I start "windows setup from the original setup CD-Rom" when it tells me that this program can only be run from Windows,,(Kinda impossible at the moment!!)If i could get this to run maybe it will be able to repair the file in question!

Im using a friends laptop at the moment
so if anybody has come across this before maybe u might have some advice
Any help would b much appreciated,I'll check back 2nite if I still have any hair left!
Cheers:)

hostyle

First question I have is how do u make an XP Boot disk???

Next time try using google first. First hit searching for "Xp boot disk" brought me to here

How can I start "windows setup from the original setup CD-Rom"

If you can boot from CD-ROM (most modern PCs can do it, but you may have to edit boot order in your BIOS), turn on your PC, insert XP installation CD-ROM, restart the PC.

Failing that use the XP boot disks to boot and then repair using your CD-ROM.

One caveat: I have never, ever managed to Repair Windows 2000 using the any of the Repair optons from the CD-ROM. It just fails every time and I ended up re-installing from scratch (or when I was smart from the ghosted image I had already prepared). I have never even installed XP.

hostyle

Well done to the thread starter for having two copies of this thread and to me for not noticing.