BleepingComputer.com: Windows cannot start

When I try to start up windows I end up with a screen telling me Windows could not start up because WINDOWS\system32\config\system is missing or corrupt. It says I can attempt to repair by starting windows setup with the original cdrom. It says to press r at the first screen. What is the original cdrom (computer I own bought from someone else so I have no disks with it) and if I hit delete at the first screen windows setup comes up but I don't know what everything means or what to do? HELP please

Well at the very least the "original CD-rom" refers to a copy of windows that was shipped with the computer just in case something like this happens. While someone else may know of another solution, I don't know if it is possible to fix this error without the windows disk. The screen that you are getting is because of exactly what it says, there is a file corrupted amongst your system files that is preventing it from booting.

The one thing that I can think of doing that might help is booting to "last known good configuration". To do this:
-Press F8 while the computer is booting up. Start pressing it, and keep pressing it (repeated taps of the button) until the computer either beeps or brings up the advanced boot options menu.

-From the screen that appears (Known as the advanced boot option menu), select "LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIGURATION".

Dunno if that'll work, but its probably worth a shot.

Thanks for the information. I tried to start using the last known good configuration, but windows still could not start and was given the same error message.

When I got that message a while back I was able to use a rescue disk (boot disk) from the Fix-It-Utilities 9 disk to go in and use System Restore to restore my computer to a previous date and that fixed it like nothing had ever been wrong with the computer.

All I had to do was put in that disk, start the computer, and select use System Restore. It let me choose a restore point and in a very short amount of time, all was well. Took less than 30 minutes from putting the disk in to being up and running again.

I bought the disk at Wal-Mart for about 30 bucks and it has a lot of other utilities on it too, including one year of anti-virus protection. I found it well worth the 30 bucks.

This post has been edited by Stang777: 17 December 2009 - 05:10 PM

I will check out getting one of those. Sounds like it would be useful for other issues also.

That seems like it'll do the trick, though hunting down a copy of windows XP would be best. If you can get ahold of a copy from a friend, you'll be able to use the disc to do a repair install which would fix your computer.

Also, don't pay for a boot disc, there many options for boot discs that can be found for free with a little google searching. The Ultimate Boot CD is a good start. http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Get of a copy of Windows XP Home and carry out the Repair process.
It's always useful to have a copy of Windows on you, more so in such cases.