XP Instalation Command prompt

Friends mother has a Packard Bell 'Easy Note' with pen 4 .. the WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM is either missing or corrupted and wont of course boot. I am trying to do a Repair but cant access the XP Home edition disc automatically and ends up at a command prompt. I have tried all possible drive letters such as D:\setup.exe E and F but saying a bad command. Am trying to beg a external floppy drive to use the 6 bootup disks. In the mean time any suggestions Geeks.

 

First things first, run 'chkdsk c: /f /r /p' from that command prompt. (without quotes)

 

Also try this microsoft solution.

 

Thanx for reply erikske,, tried the ckdsk /p and seems ok so I then went to the M$ site you gave and tried the manual command prompt list that was there, but, when i got to ''copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software'' It was unable to find the file.. so if the commands are copying from HD its no wonder it cannot find it as this is the one that is corrupt or missing>>>
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM.. so where does that leave me.. I'm also wondering if I could beg\borrow an external HD caddy and slave the corrupt one and see if its poss to drag off data then format but thats assuming the partition is OK.. any more brain waves plz..

 

Reboot computer and start tapping F8 immediately when it begins to boot. This should bring up a menu with options like 'Safe mode' etc. Select 'Last known good configuration' and press enter.

If this fails, try booting in safe mode. If it works try System Restore first. Should system restore fail, try to manually restore the registry using part two in the microsoft solution. Part two in that solution is an alternative to part one if you can access safe mode.
If both Safe mode and Last known good configuration fail, you have a problem.
The only way to restore the system registry is replacing it by a backup. If there are no backups present on the system, you have a big problem. Even windows repair can't help you then. The only way to get your system going again is to completely reinstall windows. You can of course connect the HD to another computer first to make the necessary backups.

 

Thanks for your help erikske.. but it appears I was banging me head too often and brain starting to hurt lol .. the lady in question said it was OK to Format so thats what I have done. hate giving in but she has little money and I haven't a external HD caddy to drag off data, she was mostly concerned about her e-mails would go missing..but having reassured her that they would still be there she was happy .. so thanx again.