HELP please = Computer won't boot

[galadial]

This is becoming a headache and i've no idea what the problem is.

History: My computer has been running fine for about 4 months then one day it began to slow down. It took 5 mins to boot and several minutes to open a programme (if it opened at all). The next day it wouldn't boot.

Problem. Computer won't boot, returning an error message saying corrupt file in windows/system32/config\system. When I load the windows DVD to repair the install it won't accept keyboard input from my USB keyboard (although keyboard does work in the BIOS) - so I have to use my old non-USB keyboard. When I get to the repair/new install screen, windows does a system check and returns a registry error on a blue screen preventing any further repairs.

So now I'm totally stuck and can't determine if it's a hardware problem or software problem, yet alone any way to sort it?

Any ideas? Anyone?

Config:

C2D E6300, 2GB 800MHz ultra low freq RAM (GEIL), x1900xt, DS3 Gigabyte mobo, windows XP Home OEM

Cheers everyone for taking the time to read this,

G

 

[galadial]

Assuming you have a backup of any important data, then I would advise a full format of the disk (to tease out any disk errors) then reinstall XP from scratch.

What you are experiencing happens to everyone. I just hosed an XP system last weekend running a registry cleaning programme. These should be banned. Still it forced me to upgrade to Vista...

Going to buy a new HDD and use it to install a new copy of windows. Will then use this to recover any data off the old drive. Fingers crossed this will solve the problem, if not, watch this space......... Thanks for all the responses guys.

 

[galadial]

Everything has worked and I'm up and running. The problem was a MS XP bug that caused the aforementioned folder to be deleted when I tried to load a new driver. Buying the new HDD gave me a functional computer and now a handy way to back up my new data.

Cheers for the help,

G