Insert OEM XP disc in CD-Rom drive, switch PC on, the PC should boot to the CD-Rom drive

If it doesn’t you will need to take CD out & reboot

During boot process press the F2 key to enter System SetUp to change sequence of boot drive order, make CD-Rom drive first, save settings & exit System SetUp 

Place XP disc back in CD-Rom drive & start PC, it should boot to the CD-Rom drive containing the OEM XP CD

You should then see the Welcome To Setup screen with 3 options

Do NOT press the letter R key to launch Recovery Console to repair Windows

Press the ENTER key to select the option “to set up Windows XP now” to proceed with Repair Install

If it appears, click Accept the License Agreement & Windows will search for existing Windows installations

Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list & if Repair option appears then press the letter R to start the Windows repair

Setup will then copy the necessary files to the hard drive & reboot

Do not press any key to boot from CD when/if the message appears to do so

Setup will continue as if it were doing a clean install, but your applications and settings will remain intact

Warning

If Repair is not one of the options, then select END setup, otherwise if you proceed you will screw-up existing Windows & then need to do a Clean Install

Selecting END setup gives you time to think about other options if you need to first recover personal data

After Repair Install has completed you will need to use the F2 key again to enter System SetUp to change sequence of boot drives back to original order, save settings & exit System SetUp

Remove OEM XP CD then reboot to Windows normal mode

thanks bell boy for your response! however, the solution you gave me did not work! I also tried chkdsk, that also did not fix the problem. I tried the instructions on the microsoft website to fix this problem, which worked fine until I did the following step and got the following message:

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\

Hi again zarduke

Not a good sign then    :emotion-45:

If not already seen, you can read all this recent thread

In summary, windows\system32\config\system type errors are generally caused by:

1. Corrupt or missing Windows registry hive(s), there are 5 of them

2. HDD (hard disk drive) problems, either bad sectors or HDD is heading south

(a) Using Repair Install procedure normally resolves corrupt/missing registry hive issues

(b) If you successfully run Recovery Console option to execute registry hive repair, then:

SAM hive copy over from Repair folder will mess up previous Profiles settings & there associated personal data, folders, services loading etc., then not being able to log back into Windows, you will need to do a Clean Install

(c) Before going any further with possible software solutions

If not already done, suggest you now run hardware diagnostics to determine condition of your HDD

zarduke

Bell Boy is a wise trouble shooter!

Consider whether the data on your HD is valuable to you. If it is, 1) remove drive, and attach it to a PC as a second drive using an interface adapter, and extract all important data off of the drive onto the PC. *or*       2) Download "live" ubuntu OS (on another computer), burn it to a cd as a bootable disc, place disc in drive, restart and boot into ubuntu, and use it to  extract data onto a USB flash drive.

The HD could very well be defective. It may also be worthwhile to create a memtest86 CD (another free, bootable disc to create!) to test your RAM for defects. A defective HD or RAM will corrupt Windows files, which you will notice; but can also create corruption in documents, music, ......, which will show problems little by little.

Hi Bell Boy,

I have the same problem described above. I chose the option “to set up Windows XP now” but I don't see any option to repair the installations so I came out. What are my options now. If I want to take a backup of my data before I go ahead with the procedure described on Micosoft website, how do I do it? I tried connecting a USB drive but I can't get to it from the command prompt. Please let me know.