[pompanoguy]

I have a dell laptop and it is sick. It will not boot up, and so I put in the original system disk ( changed the cmos accordingly to boot from cd ).... it came back with a message "bad or corrupt system32". Is there any way to fix this and not lose my documents? Thanks

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At which point did it say that?

[Retired Tech]

At which point did it say that?

[pompanoguy]

I have a dell laptop and it is sick. It will not boot up, and so I put in the original system disk ( changed the cmos accordingly to boot from cd ).... it came back with a message "bad or corrupt system32". Is there any way to fix this and not lose my documents? Thanks

It said that after I did the cd boot. It took some time, and then that message appeared

[Retired Tech]

You started the PC with the XP CD in and saw press any key to load from CD, so you pressed enter? If so, where does it start to differ from the XP repair guide

You can use this guide to repair XP

Possibly, you will need to press the power button and keep tapping the delete key, (possibly F2) until the PC enters set up. Change the boot order to CD ROM Drive then hard drive, press F10 then press enter, load the XP CD then type Y then press enter, as it reboots, look for press any key to load from CD, press enter

You will need your XP product key to complete this

The XP Product Key is a 25 character alpha numerical code, which does not include the sequence OEM

If you have audio / video files which are subject to DRM you should check with the provider for known issues with performing an XP repair install

Click this to view the XP Repair Install Guide

Windows XP repair feature won't delete your data, installed programs, personal information, or settings. It just repairs the operating system

The XP repair install will look and run as a normal install, however, you must not see a request to format the drive

After running XP Repair you will need to install all Windows Updates

Microsoft Update