Hi

Please see if the following article helps:

"How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from
starting"
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=307545

The article does not apply to OEM versions of XP.

--


Will Denny
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

"Ceowin" <Ceowin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BD43FCD3-3570-41BC-929D-84CA6843B48C@microsoft.com...
> Like marty, I frequently have the same problem where PC shows on start-up
> the
> following:
> Windows could not start because the folowing file is missing or corrupt:
> \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
>
> Usually I just reformat or reinstall. Could someone please state the main
> reasons why this happens? Is there a possibility that it's hardware
> problem?