error message "windows/system32/config/system"?

if it were my computer, i would purge everything from the hard drive and start from scratch, but my friend has valuable info on the computer and i was wondering if this option would work.

when the computer starts up, there is an error message which states something like "windows/system32/config/system" file is missing or corrupt. press r to recover/repair.

pressing r restarts the computer. going into safe mode, the boot files run down the screen and stops on windows/system32/config/system

i want to reinstall windows xp with the cd that i have. going into automated repair mode, the computer puts you into a command prompt. at that point i doint know what to do.

i want to setup xp again, but it asks me to delete the present partition and start anew. would deleting the present partition erase all of the data on the hard drive?

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XP...install.htm#RI
This should be helpful to you.

Quote:

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would deleting the present partition erase all of the data on the hard drive?

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The answer to that question is a definite YES!