I've had my Dell Inspiron 8600 for a year now and this problem seems to
keep popping up.

On boot:
Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or
corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

I know how to repair the registry to fix the problem
(http://support.microsoft.com/default...EN-US;Q307545),
but I'm wondering if anyone knows what could be causing it. I have
reformated several times but the error still comes up every now and
then; it seems like its becoming more frequent now; like once every
three weeks or so.

I originally thought it might be a hard drive problem, but the Seagate
tools claims my drive and controller are in working condition. What
else might cause the error?

You might try the User Profile Hive cleanup service. It helps to
write and close the Registry at system shutdown. There might be
a hardware issue underlying it. I once had motherboard in a PC
that seemed to develop that issue. Check the following MS KB
article for some info:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=822705&SD=tech

<timlegg@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1128352464.931370.303790@z14g2000cwz.googlegr oups.com...
> I've had my Dell Inspiron 8600 for a year now and this problem seems to
> keep popping up.
>
> On boot:
> Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or
> corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
>
> I know how to repair the registry to fix the problem
> (http://support.microsoft.com/default...EN-US;Q307545),
> but I'm wondering if anyone knows what could be causing it. I have
> reformated several times but the error still comes up every now and
> then; it seems like its becoming more frequent now; like once every
> three weeks or so.
>
> I originally thought it might be a hard drive problem, but the Seagate
> tools claims my drive and controller are in working condition. What
> else might cause the error?
>