SystemRoot Error

After doing Microsoft Automatic Updates that included Service Pak3 among other things, my computer continuously restarts itself without ever booting up to Windows.
I have tried booting into Safe Mode as well as trying System Recovery but neither will work. The computer restarts during the boot process. When I tried the System Recovery it began but then I got the following error message:

STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failur}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\Systemroot\Systsem32\Config\SECURITY
or it's log or alternate.
It is corrupt,absent,or not writeable.

I do not have the original recovery cd's that came with my pc. I tried downloading and using a Boot Disk for Winxp but that did not work.

I am running Winxp Home Edition on a HP 754n with 1G memory.

Hope someone can help. Thanks

 

You are not going to be able to fix this particular error without a CD or such that can boot your pc.

Microsoft list this as a problem with the hard drive, and suggest running CheckDisk from the recovery console.

There are other ways, but they all rely on another way to boot the pc.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830084

 

I have tried downloading an XP bootdisk and restarting the computer with the disk but nothing happens. I hear the CD drive run but I never get anything on the screen and then soon the pc will restart again. Would I be better off doing a Clean Install of WinXP. I have backed up most of my files on an external hard drive.

 

An XP 'boot disk' is a different animal and will not help you as it cannot boot the pc by itself.

Yes if you have an HP restore partition on the harddrive, a full reinstall should do you.

Run check disk as soon as you have a working operating system as the install will not help with this.