The last couple of days I had to deal with a few problems, that were mainly caused by some stupid mistakes. I turned off my computer holidng the power-on button for a few seconds (this will usually shutdown a PC completely), because I was in a hurry and had to leave. After I turned on the PC again a couple hours later I received a message that the file /system32/config/system was missing and this is a crucial file of the operating system…

After reactivating XP via phone I went straight to the system32 folder. In the subfolder config I found another subfolder “RegBack”. I suppose that this was created automatically by Vista, because I can’t remember that I did it. However I was lucky enough to find a fresh copy of the required file in there.
I copied it into the config folder and rebooted. Everything was fine again, although I will probably have to run CHDSK a few times and reinstall a lot of applications. I learned my lesson I guess

Since this can happen to anyone I suggest that you regulary backup the files in the folder /windows/system32/config/ !

Also make a backup of the registry from time to time. To do that you can simply go to “Start” → “All Programs” → “Accesoires” → “System Tools” → “Backup”. The backup wizard will lead you through the system backup.