need help, computer wont boot.

[Sedah]

Okay, my uncle gave me he's laptop... and the problem with it is that everytime i power up the laptop I get this message "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM"

The laptop is a Compaq Presario v5000.

what can I do? Tried booting from the cd but it wont load, and I tried pushing 'R' from the start up but nothing. and already tried settin up the boot options to cd/dvd drive and it still wont read the CD...anything else I should try? I have no idea how to fix this, already tried everything that I knew; cuz this happened to my desktop before but having trouble gettin it to work on this laptop. any help/advice appreciated very much. =)

thanks in advance

 

[Bodaggit23]

Keep tapping Esc while it boots. That should bring you to the Boot menu.

 

[Sedah]

Keep tapping Esc while it boots. That should bring you to the Boot menu.

i can access the boot menu, jus wont run the cd. even when i change the boot options to cd/dvd drive. it still doesnt read it.

 

[Marylin]

Assuming your BIOS supports booting from a CD you need to make sure the boot priority is set to look in the CD Drive first before it checks the hard disks. If not you’ll need to change the boot priority in the BIOS setup and save the changes.

You will then find that during the boot sequence a message will flash up on screen saying

Press any key to boot from CD…..

I almost missed it myself because it appeared at the bottom of the screen and only stayed on screen for about 3 seconds.

Now just press any key and it should begin booting from your CD. If you don’t press a key when the message appears the PC will ignore the CD Drive and continue booting from the hard disk.

 

[Dystopia]

yes, you need to re-install windows. Files are missing. Just stated the obvious, didn't I?

 

[Sedah]

nvm i got it working, read up some more on other forums and it worked.

 

[Bodaggit23]

Assuming your BIOS supports booting from a CD you need to make sure the boot priority is set to look in the CD Drive first before it checks the hard disks. If not you’ll need to change the boot priority in the BIOS setup and save the changes.

You will then find that during the boot sequence a message will flash up on screen saying

Press any key to boot from CD…..

I almost missed it myself because it appeared at the bottom of the screen and only stayed on screen for about 3 seconds.

Now just press any key and it should begin booting from your CD. If you don’t press a key when the message appears the PC will ignore the CD Drive and continue booting from the hard disk.

Tapping Esc while the pc is booting eliminates the need to change the BIOS, unless you want it to boot everytime you put a cd in. Then I would change the BIOS.