How to fix "Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt"

Start Recovery Console

To fix registry errors, you need Windows XP Recovery Console. You can start from a Windows XP CD or boot directly to the Recovery Console.

Follow these steps to boot into Windows XP Recovery Console

• Put your Windows XP CD-ROM drive
  
• Restart your computer, make sure that your BIOS is set to boot from CD
  
• When you see the "Press any key to boot from CD ..." press the space bar or any key.
  
• Wait until you see the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press R to start the Recovery Console
  
• Choose the Windows installation that you want to load
  
• Enter password and press Enter
  
• You should now be at C: \ Windows> prompt
  
• Repair Copy files via Recovery Console

If your Windows installation is on another drive you replace the drive letter in the procedure below.

At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following lines and press ENTER after each line:

md tmp
copy c: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ system c: \ windows \ tmp \ system.bak
copy c: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ software c: \ windows \ tmp \ software.bak
copy c: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ sam c: \ windows \ tmp \ sam.bak
copy c: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ security c: \ windows \ tmp \ security.bak
copy c: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ default c: \ windows \ tmp \ default.bak

delete the C: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ system
delete the C: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ software
delete the C: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ Sam
delete the C: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ security
delete the C: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ default

copy c: \ windows \ repair \ system c: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ system
copy c: \ windows \ repair \ software c: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ software
copy c: \ windows \ repair \ Sam C: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ Sam
copy c: \ windows \ repair \ security c: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ security
copy c: \ windows \ repair \ default c: \ Windows \ system32 \ config \ default

Quit Recovery Console by typing "exit." When the computer restarts, press F8 and then select Safe Mode