Please help.. system32 file 'missing or corrupted' on startup

[a7xnck]

ok so this is from a friend over the phone who doesnt know that much so bare with me and try to fill in the spaces..
when he starts his computer it comes to a black screen saying 'the following file is missing or corrupted" and its a system32/blahbalhblah .. it did the same thing if u try to boot from the hardrive through the boot menu.. so i told him to try and stick his XP disc in and select repair.. is that good advice?
anyways he did that and called back and said ' it says which istallation would u like to log on to".. he said theyre weren't any options to select with the arrow keys and that it looked for some sort of typing.. does that ring a bell at all?
basically there is a system32 file missing, how can he/i fix it w/o wiping the system with clean install if possible?

i can always translate for him so need to barney style it for me

 

[S.T.A.R.S.]

From reading your post,I see that your friend selected the RECOVERY CONSOLE from the Windows disk and that is the WRONG WAY!!!He was supposed to do the normal Windows REPAIR and not go into that Recovery Console!!!The Recovery Console should be used ONLY if the normal REPAIR doesn't work!!!

Also can you give us the EXACT location of the missing file including the file name itself???

 

[canivari]

ok so this is from a friend over the phone who doesnt know that much so bare with me and try to fill in the spaces..
when he starts his computer it comes to a black screen saying 'the following file is missing or corrupted" and its a system32/blahbalhblah .. it did the same thing if u try to boot from the hardrive through the boot menu.. so i told him to try and stick his XP disc in and select repair.. is that good advice?
anyways he did that and called back and said ' it says which istallation would u like to log on to".. he said theyre weren't any options to select with the arrow keys and that it looked for some sort of typing.. does that ring a bell at all?
basically there is a system32 file missing, how can he/i fix it w/o wiping the system with clean install if possible?

i can always translate for him so need to barney style it for me

Tell your friend to start all over again and skip that option (of repair) and go a litlle forward and he will see another option for repair (the correct one).
Hope that helps