Webuser Forums: Can't boot, Can't use restore discs

My home pc commited suicide last night and refuses to be revived!

It suddenly turned itself off after freezing when I pulled a cd out of the drive and now when I turn it back on I get the message

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

\windows\system32\config\system

I then tried to restore it using the original cds as it suggested by pressing r when the windows set up screen appears

I wasnt sure which disc to use so I started with a disc that said "start with this disc for restore"

I get a black screen with a message saying:

"device driver not found "CDROM10"
"ERROR: FAILED TO FIND RESTORE CD"

Being someone that doesn't take no for an answer I tried the OS disc to see if I could shake a bit of life into the machine.

This gets to the windows set up page but after some curious noises and a little time another message pops up on screen saying

"File \i386\ntkrnlmp.exe could not be loaded. The error code is 4"
Set up canot be continued.

So I tried each and every one of the discs that came with the machine and get the same messages, either cannot find cdrom or i get this \i386\ntkrnlmp.exe message.

I have searched many forums to see if I canfind an answer or something similar that I could use to reference what the problem might be but have not been able to find anything yet that could shed some light on this

It isn't the newest of machines and the specs are listed below:

Compaq Presario 6240EA
Procesor: AMD Ahlon XP 2200+
Processor speed: 680
Cache size: 128/256
Memory size: 256

If anyone here can help me I would be extremely greatful. I have plenty of valuble docs on the pc and my wife is a best selling author that has a good portion of her latest book tucked away somewhere

Post Extras