I've got a Fujitsu siemens amilo pro laptop with windows xp.When I try to start it I get the following message:

'windows could not start because the following is missing or corrupt: /windows/system32/config/system'

I can get to the bios and boot screens using F2 and F12 keys and I've tried re booting in safe mode and also running the product recovery CD-ROM disc but nothing seems to work (I don't think the CD is being read as I can't hear any spining noises at all).

Any suggestions please?

missing or corrupt: /windows/system32/config/system

Is there more to this error, a file name or anything

What happens when you try safe mode

Any changes that either happened or that you perhaps made to your computer around the time that the problem started; particularly any software or hardware that you installed or setup.

I had this same problem before and from what I can remember I tried first to (like you did) use the recovery disk and actually get just those specific files. It failed and would not complete it processes. The only way I eventually fixed it was to just re-install windows all together. I am sure that is not the way you are looking to go but that decision was made after days of research and calls to other techs. Hope your luck was better than mine!