While I was playing a game (Cubis Deluxe) my Dell Inspiron 5150 Laptop shut
itself down.

Upon startup I got the following message;

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\CONFIG\SYSTEM

I attempted to use the steps in Article ID: 307545  on the Microsoft site,
but I was able to only get to Part 1 step 5 of the instructions..I got error
messages stating that the tmp file already exists.

I also tried F8 using the safe mode and got the following;

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS\system32\hal.dll
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS\system32\KDCOM.dll
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS\system32\BOOTVID.dll
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS\system32\config\system
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS\system32\config\system.alt

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\CONFIG\SYSTEM

I am lost and confused as to how to fix this problem...I don't want to have
to reimage my laptop and loose all my saved docs, though I did take a look at
reinstalling Windows XP...but there are 3 choices for the partitions which do
I choose?  I am asked to "select an item on the list';

-:  Partition [FAT]                  63MB  < 55MB free >
C: Partition2 [Unknown]   57161MB  <57160 MB free>
   Unpartitioned space           8 MB  

There is also the choice of whether I want to delete the unpartioned space,
or to create a partition in unpartioned space or to set up WINDOWS XP on the
selected item.

I am totally confused and hope that anyone can offer me some help.