Can't boot at all

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I have an older laptop with windows xp sp3, I get a message system/32/config is missing or corrupted, I can’t boot in safe mode or anything, so can’t run boot scan or anything, Avast has no rescue cd right??? Any suggestions, I would like to be able to bring it back to life

2

You registry is damaged. You can either try Last Known Good configuration (on the F8 menu on boot) or copy a backup of the registry manually from Recovery Console (also on F8 boot menu if you installed it manually, otherwise you will need XP install CD). AV rescue CD would not really help here.

See How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting KB article for instructions. Note that this is completely off-topic here.

3

Thanks dok, guess I got to try to find my xp cd, last known good config won’t work either

4

Good luck. Make sure you print out the instructions before you start. There’s not much room for mistakes here, if you manage to overwrite/delete the backup registry copy, it’s pretty much game over.