Cant boot to safe mode because of missing win32 file HELP

[Kastarla]

So I was working on my computer and everything was fine and then all of a sudden it restarts itself and i get this error about the win32 file. It tells me that my computer cant boot because of a missing or corrupr win32 file and to use yhe repair option on my windows xp installation disk to fix it.

So i think this will be an easy fix and i pull out my disk and force my computer to boot from it. I press R for repair and 1 for the windows program and then it askes me for a administrative password. ?????? I dont have a password set precisely for this reason and no matter what i try my computer tells me that my passwords are invalid and after 3 tries it forces me to reload my windows xp disk and try again!!1 *BANGS HEAD ON DESK*

Please is there anyway to go around an administrative password or is there another way to obtain the win32 file and get it into my computer? If i could just get it to boot i can repair any hidden virus or do a system restore but i cant get past that black screen of death. Please Please Please help me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[rch1231]

Ok try this. Instead of selecting R at the first screen continue on as if you were going to install (do the <F8> License, when you get to where you repartition if needed leave it the way it is and Setup will "Search for a previous installation" It will detect the copy of windows that is installed and ask if you would like to repair the installation or install a new copy. Tell it you want to repair and it will delete a bunch of files and then reinstall them from the cd. It will also ask you for your installation key later but it keeps all of your other settings and installations intact.

[Kastarla]

I will try that thank you.

UPDATE: This is the exact message i am getting :

Windows would not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:

\Windows\system32\config\system

you can attempt to repai this file by starting windows setup using the original setup CD-ROM

select "r" at the first screen to start repair.

(i guess i got the file wrong but the problem is still the same. Any other advice?)

[rch1231]

Did you try it from the second repair option like I suggested?

[Wil_1]

here is what happened to me and i had to upgrade my windows operating system and since then i have windows vista ultimate running but not like it should,the freaking time is incorrect all the time ,and the sound is distorted whenever i playback a .mp3,.wav. as far as veiwing pictures its fine ,i can view pictures all the time. but if you want my take on fixing the operating system files cause thats what the problem is, cause this happen to me twice he first time it hapened i was using windows xp home,...it restarted and i couldnt access safe mode... miraculously i was able to overwrite the old files to the new operating system i'm not going back to xp home edition ,cause i know if i do i will get banquished with plenty blue screens , so although xp home edition shows the correct time all the time, it is more prone to hack attacks i lost a slew of files in these sort of attacks and accidently erased my files on my external iomega screenplay hardrive since then i backed up madd stuff but still who needs to go through all this i lost a lot of videos stuff i can never replace so watch out for hackers.

if your hacked or something far worse i can probably fix it but if i your not in newyork city your in trouble cause i know nothing about remote fixes.

[Little Relhok]

Have you tried opening a command prompt and typing in "sfc/scannow"?