How to fix “Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt”

To fix registry errors, you need Windows XP Recovery Console. You can start from a Windows XP CD or boot directly to the Recovery Console.

Follow these steps to boot into Windows XP Recovery Console

• Put your Windows XP CD-ROM drive
• Restart your computer, make sure that your BIOS is set to boot from CD
• When you see the “Press any key to boot from CD …” press the space bar or any key.
• Wait until you see the “Welcome to Setup” screen, press R to start the Recovery Console
• Choose the Windows installation that you want to load
• Enter password and press Enter
• You should now be at C: Windows> prompt
• Repair Copy files via Recovery Console

If your Windows installation is on another drive you replace the drive letter in the procedure below.

At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following lines and press ENTER after each line:

md tmp
copy c: Windows system32 config system c: windows tmp system.bak
copy c: Windows system32 config software c: windows tmp software.bak
copy c: Windows system32 config sam c: windows tmp sam.bak
copy c: Windows system32 config security c: windows tmp security.bak
copy c: Windows system32 config default c: windows tmp default.bak

delete the C: Windows system32 config system
delete the C: Windows system32 config software
delete the C: Windows system32 config Sam
delete the C: Windows system32 config security
delete the C: Windows system32 config default

copy c: windows repair system c: Windows system32 config system
copy c: windows repair software c: Windows system32 config software
copy c: windows repair Sam C: Windows system32 config Sam
copy c: windows repair security c: Windows system32 config security
copy c: windows repair default c: Windows system32 config default

Quit Recovery Console by typing “exit.” When the computer restarts, press F8 and then select Safe Mode