HELP! can get windows pro to boot.. need help repairing it!

Ok when I was messing with my FSB I guess I had it running to high and it caused a windows file to get corupted and now when I go to boot my pc it says something like "cannot boot windows, you can use your original setup cd and press "r" to try to repair it" Then I reboot and boot from cd.. it does its little thing and then im presented with 3 options. 1. Install 2. Repair 3. Exit.. I choose 2. Repair and it does its little thing for a sec and asks me what win dir I want to logon to.. and I pick 1. cause its the only one I have.. but then I dunno what to do. How can I fix my windows so It boot again? I kno with winxp home and other ones like 98 all you would do is re-install windows.. but with this one when I go to reinstall it, it seems like its gonna make another windows copy on the same partition instead of just replacing the windows files... I dont want to loose the stuff on this drive either, so can somebody help me out please! Its windows xp pro.

You should be able to use the repair console to recopy the damaged file from the CD to your drive. But someone more experienced than me will have to guide you through the steps. Last time I tried using the copy command from the repair console, I had no luck, and I finally just formatted and reinstalled.

yea I hope someone here can... im not sure what file it is exactly.. it said like \windows\system32\config\system was corrupted or missing... someone please help.. I wish xp pro was like xp home when it comes it installing cause u can just reinstall windows and itll fix any corupted files.

Yes, that is the same file I wrecked trying to set my FSB higher. Normally you can do a repair install with XP Pro, but not with that file missing. So you have to replace it. The part I had problems with was the target directory for the the file to be replaced to. I thought I'd done it correctly, but it still wouldn't start up. I ran out of patience.
Redduc900 seems to be very good with the command prompt lines. Try sending him, a PM.

Here try this www.computing.net/networking/wwwboard/forum/7957.html

Thanks repoman11!!! I also sent that other guy a pm.. hopefully I can get my pc running again with both that artical and his help!

hhmm I tried that webpage... but still couldnt get it to go.. does he want u to copy or type those lines underneith the areas where it says copy then a dir?

oh well I give up.. that method didnt work and I think I messes it up even more.... time to format...

Well raventy, I hope I haven't responded too late...I never received your PM and didn't have a chance to read your thread until now. As you suspected, you're getting this particular error message because of an excessively high FSB (in general, too high of an OC). From the error message that you made note of, Windows is having problems loading the Registry...causing the corruption. The following MSKB article describes in detail 'How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry that Prevents Windows XP from Starting'...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307545

The following is quoted from the above article...

When you try to start or restart your Windows XP-based computer, you may receive one of the following error messages:

• 
  [*]Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
  
  [*]Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE
  
  [*]Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate

The procedure described in this article uses Recovery Console, System Restore, and lists all the required steps in specific order to ensure that the process completes fully. After you complete this procedure, the system should return to a state very close to the system before the problem occurred.

Click to expand...

Hopefully you haven't reformatted, and are able to give the above procedure a try. I've used the steps outlined in the above article a few times myself (because of excessive OC's), and it works flawlessly as long as at least one restore point has been created...and the restore point date is older than the current time of the corrupted Registry.

hhmm odd I sent the PM.. I guess it jsut didnt go through... but I did come across that artical myself after looking through that link repoman sent.. thoe my prob was was the part where it was "PRESS ENTER AFTER EACH LINE" well i pressed enter after each line i typed their.. but it didnt make sence to me at first.. i then later realized that the part where it says somthing like "copy C:windows\system32\config\yadayada" then has something like "C:windows\system32\tmp\yadayada" is actualy all under the same line isnt it? from the page format it didnt look that way.. well when I realised that and went bak to try that.. it didnt work for some reason.. it was saying things like file not found for a few of them.. and i even then tried copying and pasting that text to a .txt file and using the batch command, but that didnt work.. so I just gave up and had winxp install over the current partition.. im hoping it wont delete my stuff when it does that.. just del my win settings.. but then i encountered another prob! the sticker on my winxp packet fell off!!! Like I have the top part of the sticker.. but the bottom is gone!!! I searched for like 2 hours around my room for it but couldnt find it!! Now I dunno what to do about that! Is their anyway I can get it from microsoft? I was thinking that maybe that number thats on the top half of the sticker can be used to identify it or somthing? any sugestions anyone?