Have an hp pavilion 513n that will not boot up. says " . . . windows32/system/config is corrupt or missing" I don't have a restore disc and can't get to a dos prompt

<br /> Ever encountered a problem with your computer wherein it gives you an error page saying that a certain file in the registry is missing or corrupt? Unfortunately, with this kind of error, there are times that you are not able to boot into the OS, and therefor you are not able to do a system restore. <br /> If you are using Windows 7 or Vista, you may initiate System Restore via booting into "Repair My Computer" which you can choose via the Advanced Boot Options of Windows. However, what do you do if this does not work, or you are using Windows XP. <br /> Fortunately, there is still a way to be able to restore your system. This involves manually doing the system restore via the recovery console (for XP), and recovery environment (Vista and 7). The only thing that you will need is the OS CD. <br /> Once you have successfully booted into the Recovery Console, type in the commands below and make sure that you press "ENTER" after each line. <br /> <br /> C:\WINDOWS] cd \ C:\] attrib -h-s "system volume information" C:\] Cd "system volume information" C:\system volume information] cd _resto~1 ..._resto~1] dir --- this should list several rp folders [short for restore points] just select second to the last or any of your choice other the the last rp folder ..._resto~1] cd rp# ...rp#] cd snapshot ...snapshot] dir --- the 5 hive files are shown in this format: _registry_machine_software _registry_machine_security _registry_machine_system _registry_machine_sam _registry_user_.default Syntax [Command filename location] ...snapshot] copy _registry_machine_software c:\windows\system32\config\software ...snapshot] copy _registry_machine_system c:\windows\system32\config\system ...snapshot] copy _registry_machine_security c:\windows\system32\config\security ...snapshot] copy _registry_machine_sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam ...snapshot] copy _registry_user_.default c:\windows\system32\config\default ...snapshot] exit <br /> After this, you just need to restart your computer and it should be working fine.

Symptoms:
Black screen
"Invalid Partition Table"
"Error loading operating system"
"Missing operating system"

Cause:
Corrupt Master Boot Record (MBR)

Resolution:
Boot into Recovery Console and run "fixmbr" to repair the MBR

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Symptoms:
"A disk read error occurred"
"NTLDR is missing"
"NTLDR is compressed"

Cause:
Corrupt boot sector

Resolution:
Boot into Recovery Console and run "fixboot" to repair the boot sector

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Symptoms:
"BOOT.INI is missing or corrupt"
"Boot device inaccessible"
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll"

Cause:
BOOT.INI missing, corrupt or out of date as a partition has been inserted

Resolution:
Boot into Recovery Console and run "bootcfg /rebuild" to repair the BOOT.INI

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Symptoms:
"Windows could not start not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM"

Cause:
Corrupt/missing system hive

Resolution:
1. Boot into Recovery Console and run "chkdsk C: /f" to check the system disk for errors and fix them, then reboot.
2. If the error continues and System Restore is enabled, copy the system hive from the last restore point into \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG
3. If the error continues, copy the system hive from \WINDOWS\REPAIR into \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG
4. If the error continues, perform a repair installation by booting from the Windows installation media

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Symptoms:
"Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.
Could not read from the selected boot disk, Check boot path and disk hardware."

Cause:
Boot volume (with Windows folder) is not accessible as defined in BOOT.INI

Resolution:
Check the boot volume is accessible

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Symptoms:
Dual-boot 32-bit Windows and 64-bit Windows system reports "NTOSKRNL.EXE is corrupt" trying to boot into 64-bit Windows

Cause:
System volume contains an older boot loader than the boot volume requires - e.g. XP SP2 installed after XP x64

Resolution:
Copy NTDETECT.COM and NTLDR from XP x64 installation media to the root of the system volume