WINXP: windows xp costs me 2 hours of my life!

so, I was merrily working away when my xp machine blue screened (I might add I've just installed winxp sp2). ho hum, said I and rebooted to be met with:

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

try using the windows repair console to fix the problem

BWAHH!!!!!!!!!!

ok, whip out my windows xp disk, repairer console. Apparently in a fit of stupidity and lack of memory i thought 'chkdsk' - that'll do the job! that will set my registry files to right and I'll be away!

Sadly this converted the \windows\system32\config directory into a file. I ended up booting from a win98 boot disk and following microsofts directions.

suffice to say hurrah for system restore but grr to microsoft for an operating system that is clearly still very vulnerable.