Windows System 32 Mising File

Im trying to help a friend of mine with his computer Compaq X07 gaming pc, Asus P4C800E motherboard, Intel Pentium 4 processor 3. GHz 800 FSB, HT, Windows XP. Forums. This is likely 5. I rarely sign up for a site just to make one post, but. Got this error, myself. Trouble is, cant press r, cant boot from any discs and, yes, had an OEM and most times couldnt even get to the BIOS and when I could the keyboard wouldnt let me navigate within the BIOS. I build my own pcs, but Ive been bad with this one, in that, Im keeping IDE HDDs alive with a PCI card nightmare to set up so the primary HDD is OH about 8 years old. After multiple reboots and trying to boot to disc and then just trying to get into the BIOS nothing would respond to me. Again, on the very few times I could get into the BIOS I couldnt move around to check boot orders, etc. So. started to think. I havent replaced it yet, but heres what I did next. Fix Missing, Invalid or Incorrectly Registered Windows System files. Many Windows System files typically ending in. CNETs Forum on Windows legacy operating systems, XP, 2000NT. One for the Safe Mode options is Command prompt. If you can get into that, navigate to the file cwindowssystem32configsystem. I cut the power to that old master HDD, then powered that old HDD again, and rebooted. Now I dont get the configsys error in the subject line here. I get cannot find OS over and over. System 32 Files. windowssystem32configsystem. HP Mini file missing or corrupt windows system 32 config Win XP problem. System32 error Windowssystem32configsystem. Usb 2.0 Dvr Driver For Laptop. Preferred Solution mising corrupt system 32WINDOWS. I recommend downloading and running Reimage. Its a computer. Answer system 32 file mising. You are renaming the file windowssystem32configSYSTEM of the dead drive to SYSTEM. OLD. windowssystem32configsystem missing or corrupt. AM. I enter. Sorta makes me think HDD bad. Havent thrown in a new HDD yet, but all the above says the thing finally died. I get a successful post code FF with my board and even the gleeful beep, but even the BIOS was being quirky. This said to me that BIOS is saying I see all your hardware, but your HDD is going in and out so Im going in and out because I cant finger it regularly. Where a post should be all or none the HDD going in and out, I think, screwed with the limited brain of the BIOS I could get in at times, but not move around because to get a post it should be an all or none process with the hardware. I guess my question would be, with my setup, and I DO have SATA drives, If I throw a new primary SATA HDD in there is it going to go for my remaining secondary IDE backup drive to format to That would be bad, mkayWhat Are System 32 FilesAnywho. I think this smells of hardware to me. If you know what youre doing, pull the power on your master HDD, then plug it back in and reboot. If BIOS cant even find the OS at that point, I think this is a dead drive issue.