?

I have an XPS/Dimension 200/5150C that has been acting up
lately. The operating system is MS XP Media Cewnter Edition

Before this present problem, I was not able to get into the
BIOS by pressing , and rarely could I get into Safe Mode
by pressing .

I now have a problem where the following message appears
right after the splash Dell screen appears”

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.

There
are two issues:

1.  Apparently the boot search goes to the hard disk and not to the  CD-ROM.  

             (I do have an MS XP boot disk.)

1. 1. The PC did not come with a CD-ROM, but I assume

1. 1. that the operating system resides on the hard disk

1. in a “hidden” partition.

As noted above, I cannot get into the BIOS using
to change the boot sequence, and neither can I get
into the “hidden” partition using .

 How can I resolve this problem?