I was restarting windows and for some reason I got this message: "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt ...\windows\system32\config\system You can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the original CD-ROM. Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair" The problem is, the Netbooks have no cd-rom and I have no backups on usb. I've only had the computer for 3 months. What can I do? I can remove the hard drive and access the files there, but can I fix the problem tht way?

Can you backup your files and do a reinstall from a recovery partition? Seems likely your registry is corrupt.

You could try getting an external USB CD drive.

The USB cd rom would be no help since the computer didn't come with a recovery cd. I don't have a separate recovery partition on the hard drive. Only one partition on which all my files reside. Any other suggestions of what might work? Is there a way I can get a new system driver and put in on the hard drive? Right now I have a hard case I can put the hard drive in and access all the files on another computer.

Obviously you need to buy an external USB Optical Drive.. Worthwhile £30.00 investment!! Then borrow any XP full version CD and Boot from CD to access to the Recovery Console, from the NT Command Line type: CHKDSK /R [and press the enter key] Option2 here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

You should contact the Manufacturer for what option you have. Warranty is good for one year. Return the computer to get money back. Only buy a computer that you can restore to factory condition. OR learn what to do with that one. ALSO, if your harddrive goes bad, you would have to get a new one. So how do you restore computer to factory new ?????