Complicated dilemma with windows XP laptop

[wolfmangk]

I need some pretty desperate help.

I have two laptops, one doesn't belong to me but I am using to try to fix the other laptop. The one that is not mine has windows 7 home premium, the laptop that is mine has windows XP.

Recently the windows XP laptop started to develop bad blocks, and eventually it wouldn't boot at all. The CDROM in this laptop is also destroyed, and there is no option to boot from USB.

A week ago a friend gave me a laptop hard drive.

I have several 3.5" hard drive interfaces so that I can connect the new and old hard drives to the new laptop and use them as "thumb drives".

I do have a windows XP Disc, and windows 95, and windows 98, although they are pretty scratched up.

If I insert the windows CD into the new laptop, it doesn't give me the option to install windows XP, this laptop has windows 7 and I guess they don't get along. I get the options under "Perform additional tasks"-Set up remote desktop connection, set up a home or small office network, transfer files and settings, browse this cd, view release notes.

When I use terracopy to copy the windows folder from the old HDD to the new one, the old laptop says "BOOTMGR Missing, press ctrl alt delete to restart".

The CDrom in the new laptop is of a different electrical standard than the old one, so I am unable to use it in the old laptop. I can only connect the old and new hard drives to the new laptop and work with them there.

Any ideas?

OK I did some more file copying and verifying, and:

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\windows\system32\config\system

You can attempt to repair this file by starting starting windows setup using the original setup cdrom. Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair"

OK so I did some research and that file is a product of the registry, and I need to run the repair option at startup with the cdrom, but my cdrom is in some landfill. How to I fix the system file (With no extension) using the cdrom on a windows 7 machine? Please help!

[Mentos]

I would like to give solutions of your problem stepwise. After reading the post, I think that you are having much complications since your laptop (old one), is not having boot from USB option. In such scenario the only solution is using the hard disk. You should make bootable hard disk which can be used for installing Windows XP.

If I insert the windows CD into the new laptop, it doesn't give me the option to install windows XP, this laptop has windows 7 and I guess they don't get along. I get the options under "Perform additional tasks"-Set up remote desktop connection, set up a home or small office network, transfer files and settings, browse this cd, view release notes.

This issue occurs when you are not having proper bootable CD. I think CD that you are using must have some corrupt files, that's why you are getting this problem.

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\windows\system32\config\system

You can attempt to repair this file by starting starting windows setup using the original setup cdrom. Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair"

Again same problem.!! This error also generates when there are config files missing. I recommend you to try some other CD and I am sure that it will work.