I believed your might see this error message (Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM) before. This error occured because of corruption in the registry.

Below are the steps to recover a corrupted registry.

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In Windows XP, there is 1 powerful command-line tool called chkdsk (chkdsk.exe). It use to checks volumes for problems and will repair the problems related to bad sectors, lost clusters, cross-linked files, and directory errors. System crashes or freezes, power glitches, incorrectly turning off a computer can all cause corruption in the file or folder structure. Physically bumping or jarring a computer can cause the head that reads disks to hit the surface and damage sectors. Once some sort of error occurs it can propagate to create more errors so a regularly scheduled disk checkup is part of good system maintenance.

Note: To use Chkdsk, you must log on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group