go to accireys then syestem tools then syestem restore and restoe to the day before this happened (if you can rember)

I know you get this a lot, but I have a crazy problem and really need your help. I had this corrupt config/system problem. Booting from last good config did not work, so I tried the other method that was listed and kept getting "access denied'' problems. I have no password on my computer and never have so I couldnt imagine getting denied access to copy the files to the registry.
To see if anything would work, I ran chkdsk, it started, was at 0% when all of a sudden my house lost power and the computer shut down. Once we regained power, I tried to turn it on again, and booting from the CD it said that windows could not find a hard drive on my computer!!!! the repair said that problem as well as when I tried to go to windows setup mode.
This is the craziest thing ever, please, please , PLEASE tell me that there is a way to fix this. I have a lot of stuff on this computer that I'd love to keep.
I need your help. Thank you,
Michael
Oh yes, and I am in a foreign country, so tech support is not very feasible.

Similar problem, SONY Picturebook C1MV/M, XP in OEM mode. Q307545 not the answer. And F8 only gets me into my Phoenix BIOS. Doing this at least once a year, sadly, so far started from scratch every time with Recovery CDs, taking several days of installing XP updates and all software ... Need this notebook while on the road, GPS, email, copy of all my workfiles, etc. Can't keep wasting my time like this at my age (hint : I started programming in COBOL and FORTRAN in 1963 on IBM mainframes).
HELP !

Let me add this :

However, I do have an external HDD (Apricorn EZ-GIG) that connects to my notebook via PCMCIA adapter. On it, I mirrored my Picturebook HDD about 16 months ago, so it’s quite outdated BUT the essentials of XP – minus recent updates – are on it. Can I do anything with that ?

And here the resolution, thanks to Pete's help on the PCG-C1 Web Forum :

Pete –

Second attempt a winner. You were right on the money : My first idea did not pan out, though. While I did find a Recovery Console on my W2K Upgrade CD right away, it did not shake loose my XP, these things are too specific, I guess.

I then went the 6 XP Boot Floppies route (who keeps floppies around any more ?), download from MS site. Only hitch came from the chkdsk /r/ /p command when that resulted in an error message “… cannot find autochk.exe in CDROM drive…�. As a CD appeared to be called for, the only CD I had available was the W2K Upgrade, on which chkdsk was promptly found, followed by a 20-minute checking and recovery job.

XP started up like new upon exiting the Recovery Console.

Here's something that did the trick for me and it's much more easier than the microsoft article about this problem: http://www.toughadmin.com/article.php?article=System

Found an even easier solution, my mates PC did the same, so we put his HDD into the one we had at work as we were going to transfer some files he wanted to keep, then format his HDD, but in the process of booting up, the PC recognized that the HDD was corrupt, and repaired all the corupt/missing files, so we put his HDD back into his PC and it now works a treat.
His o/s is WinXP Pro, the same as the o/s in work, so don't know if it would work if the XP o/s are different. ie home/pro.

Hi there. I have a similar problem, but as one of you said in an earlier post, i have a Toshiba laptop and i dont have a windows xp CD.
I only have the " cds given by toshiba.
My step father on the other has a windows xp cd and i used it to try. I could reach the recovery console but i coumdnt dp any of the steps stated above as i always get an access denied. The prompt always starts at C:
and if i try to reach any folder, like windows,
C:/ cd windows
i get: access denied

Is it because the windows xp cd is not mine?

what else can i do?
thanks

Try

chkdsk /p

and

fixboot

i did it and it didnt work...
Any other solutions?
Is there a way i could get a windows cd corresponding to my number?