system32\config issues and more

have mercy on me, i know nothing and really need some help.

I got the blue screen of death telling me i had to reboot. when it came back on, the blue screen appeared again, and then a black screen with this message:
windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt \windows\system32\config\system. you can attempt to repair by starting windows setup using the original cd-rom, select 'r' at the first screen.


heres part of the issue. no matter what key i press it sends it back to rebooting. i dont get a start up screen at all. i have the dell drivers and diognotics disc, plus the xp reinstallation disc, but they dont do anything. all im stuck with is the black screen telling me that windows couldnt start.

I managed to get the f2 screen to come up , but I can't do anything from there... the recovery disk is inaccessible as any key pressed reboots the entire thing. any suggestions?

i'll add as much info as i can when you ask

thanks in advance

 

Welcome to the forumThe initial error is a corrupt windows configuration file which can repair through the recovery console so getting into that is our first priority.

Is this a laptop?Anyway you first need to enter bios by hitting F2 and while there go into boot options and select CDrom as first boot device.As soon as your computer turns on start tapping F2 and keep tapping it,this is way before the windows start screen I mean as soon as you hit the power button start tapping F2.

Let me know exactly what happens when you try this.

 

this is a dell latitude D610, about 4-5 years old ( and has to last as long as possible)

when F2 finally comes up, i have a selection of boot sequesnce, and in that list is
1.diskette drive
2.internal hdd
3.usb storage device
4. cd/dvd/cd-rw drive.

 

nope, dont even have any floppy discs in the house ;-)

was able to run the system tree diognostics and these are the errors that have come up. hopefully they give you guys a clue as to what is happening.

(these are the fail tests)

read test
error code 0F00:0244 uncorrectable data error or media is write protected

verify test
error code 0F00:1A44
uncorectable error code or media is write protected

error code 0F00:075D
IDE device failed: the self test failed the read portion of the test.




thanks again to all of you!

 

It looks like your hard drive is dying which would explain the data corruption.

It shouldn't affect the boot screen though you should still be able to set the computer to boot from CD following plodr's post.

Are you saying in your first post that every key you hit in the BOOT screen not the 'windows recovery screen' causes the computer to restart?We need a little more info as to what exactly is happening when you to try to boot from CD or enter the bios or there's no point us suggesting what to do next.