Sony Win 2000, Corrupt/Damaged System Files, Fix (Emergency Repair/Install 2 OS)

Today, when I turned on my old Sony laptop with win 2k, I received a message that the file WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEMced was corrupted or needed repair. The recommendation was to use the original recovery or the Win 2000 CDs.

Problems & thoughts:

1) Sony is proprietary. When I insert the original Sony CD, the only options which appear on the 1st screen are to get rid of everything on (a) C drive or (b) C+D drives.

Does anyone know if there's a way to access an option to repair? Or, if I get rid of everything on C, do u know if I can reinstall and at least, save everything on D?

2) I tried to use a 'normal' windows 2000 OS CD, but to repair via 'console' or 'emergency,' the prompt asks for the emergency repair disk.

Yikes, I'm travelling for the holidays and my Emergency Repair Disk is at home. Does anyone know if or how I can repair without the Emergency Repair Disk?

3) Another option was to install the Win 2000 on drive D. I'm wondering if this will let me access my files (then, back-up my files - there's not too many and the majority of new stuff is on drive D) and then, to the entire reinstall from the original CD's.

However, if I don't do the entire reinstall and I keep the D drive Win 2000 -- will this be okay until I get home and use the Emergency Repair disk? Or, will there be a problem with two OS's on win 2000?


I'd appreciate your kind advice!