recovery console

[DXsocko007]

So im working on repairing my Dads HDD he had 61 viruses and i have used avast! and it removed them all. but Windows still does nto start when i put his HDD back in his PC i tried to formatt but it gives me a blue screen. so i went into revocery console (pressing r after you put in XP) and it askes me what windows i want to access so i press 1 and im in but it leaves me with

C:\Windows>

how can i get it to reinstall XPs files without formatting it cause everytime i try to start the pc it says

C:Windows\system32\Config\SYSTEM cannot be found. all i want is to repair the drive.

So what do i need to type in the recovery console to solve this?

i cant access safe mode or anything its pretty messed up but if i got XP

 

[sturm]

you reinstall windows on top of itself by going thru the normal install. You select the existing install directory to use for the reinstall. Windows will yell at you about it but tell it to install anyways.

 

[site3op]

Please read through the following page:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

 

[fattony]

C:Windows\system32\Config\SYSTEM refers to the SYSTEM hive file for the registry database (when you access regedit.exe and look at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SYSTEM)

if this file is toast, your options are very limited, you can try restoring the default SYSTEM file located in this folder: C:\WINDOWS\repair\system.bak, this file was created the day Windows was first installed, rename it to SYSTEM, no file extensions, move it to the C:Windows\system32\Config folder, but rename the SYSTEM to SYSTEM.OLD before "replacing it"incase you need it some day

reboot from RC and see if it boots with the original SYSTEM hive, but i recommend completely formatting and re-installing his windows if it had a virus, you cant recover from it and it will save you time in the long run with other issues that might come up