apoligys if this is in wrong section

xp on the laptop goes to the loading screen and no further before after about 3 mins it blue screens then comes up with the error message

" Stop: 0xc0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config , "

so i desided to try and recover windows from a XP instalation disk (recover or fresh instail i dont care) but it does not want to boot from the cd,

i have it set at bios to boot from the cd, but it doesnt and times out trying to boot from the hard disk again.

when i have the xp disk in, i cannot acsess the bios...

is there a way to get it working agian without buying a new hardrive,

(i do not know if there have been any problems with the disk drive prior to me getting the laptop)

Hi bliceheart and welcome to the forum

Have you tried to get into safe mode?

Could you also give us the details of the laptop i.e. Make and model

Windows Support Centre (WSC) found here Troubleshooting Windows STOP Messages

In forms us that a Stop: 0xc0000218
A necessary Registry hive file couldn’t be loaded. The file may be corrupt or missing (requiring either an Emergency Repair Disk or a Windows reinstallation). The Registry files may have been corrupted because of hard disk corruption or some other hardware problem. A driver may have corrupted the Registry data while loading into memory, or the memory where the Registry is loading may have a parity error (turn off the external cache and check the physical RAM).

Since you've checked in bios and ensured that you PC is set to boot from CD and it will not start
from XP installation disk. You could try a Linux Live disk (any linux disto will do) just to make sure its (I know its unlikely) not the XP installation disk that faulty.

You could try turning off external cache in bios to see if you can access either of your drives
How to and advice in the effects of turning off external cache here
External Cache

The difficulty here is you cannot access the DVD/CD drive

If the Laptop allows booting from the USB there's an how to on this here
SolutionBase: Boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive

Jim

What you are having is drivers issue probably. You have to get the drivers for your harddrive installed first before installing the win xp. You can do that by pressing f6 at the prompt of the xp installtion. When you insert the xp disc and start installtion it should ask you to press f6 at sometime in the begining of the installation. First look for you hard drive drivers and trasfer to a floppy. Use the floppy after pressing f6.

Another solution is to check for Harddrive mode in the bios and change it from whatever its set to, to COMPATIBLE. After doing this, go ahead and install the xp.

I hope it works for you.