My computer died :( Need some advice on whether or not it's fixable

[Linnet]

Last week my pc starting making a strange whiny sound and then it just shut sdown completely.

It now will not work, but when I turn it on it gives me a message telling me that...

windows/system32/config/system is missing or corrupt. It then says that it could be repaired by starting windows set up using the original set up cd rom.

It's Windows XP and I can't find a cd in my house to do with this. I'm assuming that I must have received one with the computer when I bought it 5 years ago but it's not with all the paperwork, so I'm not sure.

anyway, question is, If I can't find the cd-rom would I be able to take the pc into somewhere like PCworld (didn't buy it from them) and would they fix it? does anyone know if it would even be fixable? Is it possible to buy cd roms of Windows Xp that I could then put in to see if it would fix it?

Would appreciate some advice on this as I'd really like to get it fixed if I can as there are things I need to transfer onto disc so I can use them on the laptop.

thanks for any help.

It does sound as though you just need teh boot disk or a re-install of Windows to me...or that it is at least worth giving it a go.

I would say that one of the worst things you can do is take it to PC world. They care nothing fo ryour data; will probably reformatt you hard drive (i.e. delete everything) and start from scratch.

I would take it to an independant little computer shop that lives on the back streets of your town that you don't even know exists. They are more likely to respect your data and do what they can to repair or recover your data before they destroy it.

A collegue of mine says never reformat (or allow anyone to do so) because that WILL destroy teh data. 9/10 the data can be recovered with a bit of technical knowhow by doing whizzy things hooikng it up to a working PC and fiddling with stuff...even i your PC is fully 100% dead.

HTH

Yep I agree.
If a local shop tells you that the windows install is corrupt and can't be repaired they shoudl still be able to move your hard disk into a second pc and backup your data for you.
Then they can wipe the disk, reinstall can copy your files back.
However if you don't have your Windows XP install disk / licence code then they may charge you for a new copy of Windows which will make you very sad!

Argh - too many typos, but you should get the gist of what I am getting at!

First of i wouldent goto pc world big companies like that, they over charge and will try screw you over with technical crap that they dont even know about.

But from what you have said it sounds like simple hard drive fail. Take it to local small pc shop exsplain what has happend and ask them to take look at it.

They will most likely tell you its hard drive fail and it wont cost much to replace £40 for 200gb on avrage and if dont need one that big you could probably get 80gb for £30. Its the data recovery that will most likely cost you the most as that takes most time for any1 to do as data recovery slow prossess.

Once hard drive is replaced its simple matter of reformat.