Hi

My Win xp pro sp1 installation suddenly fails to boot, displaying this error message (loosely translated from Norwegian):

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows cannot start because this file is missing or damaged:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
You can repair the file by starting Install Windows from the original CD-ROM.
Choose `r` in the opening screen to repair.
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Choosing `r ` gets me nowhere but choosing `e` gets me to the recovery console...still I don`t know how to use it / what commands to run.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks

I am a computer tech and saw this last week. Boot to your XP disk. When the menu is up to install, repair, etc., hit enter , then F8 to accept license agreement. The next menu should now be showing.... if I can remember right, you hit enter again to select the drive/partition (I am assuming you only have 1 drive/partition) and the next screen gives you an option to repair. That is the repair that you want, not the first one when booting to the CD. That one sucks. I also have no idea what to do at the recovery console yet (havent read up on commands). If this doesnt work, post back and let me know and I will get my disk from the shop and try it.

Hope this helps.

Found this site which adresses the problem: http://www.dslreports.com/faq/3546 so now I`m back up again.

Thanks anyway!