reloading/repairing windows xp home?

[casinojoe1]

hello guys, i'm asking on behalf of a friend, he has major problems on boot-up. his system says the file \windows\system32\config\system is missing. i've tried booting up with xp disc in and it takes me to the screen that says...do you want to install windows? or repair windows? if i try to install windows it asks which windows i want to install, (at a c:\ prompt)? it will only allow me to type 1 letter??? ( i don't know which windows i want to install)??? if i try to repair windows, it gets to the stage where it looks for previous versions of windows then hangs! any help would be greatly appreciated?

 

[~mr mixx~]

have you tried safemode? right after you see your computer logo dissapear, kepp hitting the f8 button til the start menu comes up, then highlight last configure that worked. if windows loads up, then do this.

goto the command promt, it should be where the mspaint icon is, once there...put in sfc then enter, then put in sfc /scannow

that will scan all system files to make sure they are not corrupt and replace any that are missing with the originals off the windows xp cd.