Resolved I think I have deleted my registry?

I had a boot sector virus(I think) and could not boot my Lenovo Think centre 6239. I tried everything including AVG boot disk and ran scans. I still am not able to re-format the computer with XP Pro. I start setup to reformat>it copies the files>it says windows is starting>then I get > "windows\system32\config\system" file is missing or corrupt. It cannot find my c drive in mini xp. Is the registry part of the xp install? How can I get it back? Thanks in advance

 

Thanks very much for the reply

I have tried 2 different copies...I also added a usb cd drive and put it in bios as #1...same results

 

The problem may not be as the result of a boot sector virus at all. It could be the hard drive has died.
The Ultimate Boot Cd has the diagnostic programs for the major manufacturers of hard drives.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

 

I ran two different hd tools, one being Seagate and both showed no problems. I also installed another sata drive with same results. The error occurs before the hd is accessed because I unplugged the hd and tried it..there was no error messaage of "no hd found "

 

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting

This may be what you want. Neil.

 

The XP CD does not have SATA drivers built in.
Install Windows XP on SATA without a Floppy (F6)

 

I fixed the problem by installing win 7 which had the necessary drivers to rum. Thanks