Laptop won't boot up

[daryl]

Help!

A laptop that I've had for about 2-3 years, a Toshiba Satellite, won't boot up. It did a Norton scan, then the next day I tried to turn it on and got an error message:

Windows cannot start because the windows/system32/congfig/system file is missing or corrupt.

Is there a way to fix this? I've tried the original setup CD, but that doesn't boot it up. Right now it only shows the Toshiba entrance screen, then the error message.

Anything?

[cking]

Try booting off from your setup disk you can try 1 of two options that seem to work for me.
Option 1: on the first time it asks if you want to repair or install press R for repair console next type in fixmbr and press enter and acknoledge your warnings then type fixboot and acknoledge your warnings then try to reboot the computer.

Option 2: (try this one first) it will give you the option of fixing a currently installed windows install (after continueing past the recovery console but before it actually formats the drive. CAUTION: if you do proceed to formatting there is no turning back but as you can't get on the computer in the first place it may be just as well.) if you select repair a currently installed itll copy new files over and reinstall windows with out loseing your data.

Option 3: bring it to your nearest geek and let them play