I have followed Microsoft advice page to try and fix above corrupted or missing file but cannot get to the recovery console which is supposed to come up when I put in the Windows XP CD ROM - I cannot get to this stage at all when the CDROM is put in - sorry if I sound like a complete moron but when it comes to computers Iam! Can anyone help me please?

Hi sean. Quick question. You didn't mention whether you did this or not, but did you tell your computer to boot from the CD?

Many times this is not the default setting. If you are not sure how to do this let me know and I will post it.

Thanks for replying mate - wow you are from Nevada eh! I cannot do anything now as my screen just tells me to insert Windows XP setup CD-ROM and press "r" for repair on next screen and that's as far as I can get (I think I cocked up by trying to type in commands in safe mode to replace ntfs.sys with ntfs.old and then I typed in command to copy ntfs from CD-ROM - I was meant to do this when in recovery console but could not get that far!) maybe something wrong with CD drive I don't know!

I think what you are saying is: did I do this and the answer is yes because I think I have now told the computer to got to ntfs.old whatever that means and now I cannot install ntfs because the CD-ROM drive is not booting up the Windows XP CD-ROM for some reason and allowing me to repair.

Now it keeps starting up over and over again no matter what keys I press!

LOL, I am from Utah which is a state by Nevada, but close enough I guess...

I was in the process of answering when you posted again. Let me just clarify. Have you gone into your bios when you reboot and told it to use the cdrom as the first boot device?

If so, when it sees the cdrom in there it should give you an option at boot time to press any key to boot from CDrom. It will look like it is trying to install XP again, but after a few moments it should come up with a screen that asks you whether you want to install or repair XP. Tell it to repair it here and it should replace all of the system files you may or may not have mucked up

Let me know if this is still giving you problems...

Anyone still there or are you stumped?

Sorry am panicking! Will try what you suggest - give me a few minutes, dude.

The only commands I can get derek (my dell computer) to accept at present is F2 (setup) and F8 Windows advanced setup. There is some mention of BIOS in F2 manual setup - shall I try what you say in there?

There is a section in phoenix bios setup utility called "Boot" with 5 options including CD-ROM but all I can do is enable or disable the device?