When I turn on my laptop, i get the error message “windows cannot start because the following file is missing or corrupt” and then it lists “\windows\system32\config\system”. When I hit “R” to try to repair, nothing happens. I DO have the install CD. I put it in, turned off and then restarted my computer – but NOTHING happens. Shouldn’t my computer recognize the CD and try installing from it? I’m trying to google answers, but nothing is helping. I hit the F8 key, tried restarting in safe mode, tried restarting with “last known good configurations” but nothing works. It keeps bringing up the blue “Dell” screen and then the black screen with error messages.
I guess my question is – how do I use my install CD to fix my broken config.sys file? Does that file deal with the main registry? Did a virus do this? Last night, at 1 am (10 hours ago), it worked fine. My dad shut the computer off normally, and now this is happening. Help!!!