Cannot Start Windows! Registry Error

When ever I try to start windows 2k professional i get a blue screen saying something like one of my registry ( i think software )keys or it's log has been corrupted or deleted, its hangs for a second then another message saying something about a dump comes up and it restarts before i can get a chance to read it fully. I've tried safe mode and but i cant get it to work that way, hopefully someone will have a suggestion.
Oh and BTW the computer was working great before i shut it while i was doing a virus check with Norton 2k thats how this whole mess started it believe.
Thanks for any help you can give me,
Ian

 

It took awhile with the computer rebooting on me every 5 sec but i wrote down the exact error message

STOP: 0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The System cannot load the hive (file)
\System\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternative
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

Begining dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete... Contact your sytems administrator or (clear to fast for me to read, REBOOT).

I really hope I'm not just SOL here, I have a Ghost backup but from about a month ago but I have a lot of files that are somewhat important.

 

Tried the other boot option besides safemode didnt work, Booted the computer with a win98 startup disc and used the win2k CD to make boot discs for win2k to see if i could get into windows that way but i get a NTLRD: IO error. My floppy drive is finicky I'm going to try making the boot discs on my Win98 machine to see if it makes a difference.