When i try to start my cumputer the following comes up:\windows\system32\config\system is missing or corrupt. is there anyway i can fix this without the windows start up cd-rom as my Laptop has no disk drive?

Hey K8eken,The article below has the error documented. Please go through the suggestions and see where it takes.How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from startinghttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545Regards,Shinmila H - Microsoft Support Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Being that the laptop has no CD-ROM drive you have will have to remove the disk from the laptop and you will have to use a 2.5" to 3.5" drive adapter and mount the disk in another Windows 2000/XP computer or in a USB disk enclosure, or, if your laptop can boot from a USB device, (it probably does, look in the BIOS or consult the manual for the laptop), use an external USB CD-ROM drive.If you use a USB CD-Rom you can create a Recovery Console CD by downloading a Recovery Console .iso image from the net and burning it to CD:http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geuyhRhaJKDhEAKpWl87UF?p=%22recovery+console%22%2B.iso&fr=yfp-t-501&fr2=sfp&iscqry=Before you do the steps in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545 you can run a chkdsk /r on the drive and see if things change, if nothing changes then follow Shinmila H's advice and do as explained in KB307545. Please be advised that there is always a risk of data loss when you run chkdsk on a disk, if you have important files that are not backed up you may want to make a clone or image of the drive before you run chkdsk on it.If you mount the disk in another computer (instead of using the Recovery Console) you can dispense with Steps 1 and 3 altogether in KB307545, the object of the exercise in KB307545 is to copy the registry files in the Snapshot folder to the Config folder. From the Snapshot folder copy the files:• _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAMto the System32\config folder directly, making sure to rename them as follows:• Rename _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT to DEFAULT • Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY to SECURITY • Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE to SOFTWARE • Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM to SYSTEM • Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM to SAMThese will in fact replace the present DEFAULT, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, SYSTEM, and SAM files in the Config folder.Once that is done, return the disk to the laptop and if it boots proceed to Step 4 as instructed in the article.John