\windows\system32\config\system... problem

I have a sony Vaio- with windows XP- that apparently has a very common problem. It crashed and only boots up to a black screen that first says, Failure predicted on Hard disk 0: Toshiba MK6021GAS-(pm) and offers a warning to back up data and says to press F1 to continue. After pressing F1, it comes up with this windows\system32\config\system error and says that the file is missing or corrupt and that I can attempt to repair the file by putting the original Setup CD in and selecting "r" at the first screen.:cry Only problem is that I don't have that CD anymore. Is there a file I can download somewhere to fix this??... or am I out of luck?

 

Only thing I can suggest is to remove the hard drive, and slave it to your pc, to get anything off it- appears to be going, if not gone, hence the warning (bit late with thw warning, possibly)

 

Please see the following Microsoft Support article

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545