Corrupt Registry/BSOD Stop 50 trying to repair

I need a little help please with a Dell XPS 410 XP MCE 2005.

The intial problem was system file corrupt (registry) at normal boot.

Attempts to repair from XP CD or boot from recovery console on XP CD bring up the BSOD with Stop 50.

memtest86 passed
Dell Diagnostics Blue Screen Test passed
Dell Harddrive Diagnostics passed
Reset the CMOS
Reseated everything, checked all cables, etc.
Rebooted with each memory stick separate, same result.

The hard drive is a WD3200KS RAID. The XP CD has a message at the bottom about loading RAID or 3rd party drivers. Could this be my problem?

WD Data Lifeguard does not recognize the drive (error code 120) however Dell Diagnostices does. I was also able to copy all of the data over the network when booting Ubuntu on a USB flash drive.

help

:cry

 

I'm going to answer my own post because I fixed it and I want to help anyone else that has this same problem (it's apparently common - just no one ever posts how they fixed it).

I discovered that it is possible to restore many a Dell computer from factory settings without using the XP CD - by pressing Ctrl/F11 at the Dell splash screen at boot time: http://support.dell.com/support/top...48AE3870775D64E040A68F5B2877D4&doclang=en&cs=

This is a pretty good thing because if I had to reformat the hard drive, I would not have been able to reinstall XP straight from the XP CD because the CD doesn't have the drivers for the SATA RAID hard drive. And the only way to install the drivers during reinstall to a reformatted hard drive is via floppy disk in the a:\ drive. And without a floppy drive on the computer at all (I could not make the USB ports drive a:\ no matter what I did in the BIOS), I would have had to build a slip-stream CD with XP and the SATA RAID drivers. (Yes, all doable. However, Murphy's Law was in place and all of the DVD burners in my house just so happen to not work right now so I could not burn the slip-stream XP CD that I created! Can you even IMAGINE my frustration?).

Ctrl/F11 took 10 minutes, if that.

Hopefully this will save someone else the 8 grueling days that I spent trying to fix this thing. (I feel dumb!).