Hello, Here's how it happened. My computer was on standby and a circut blew so the power went off for a minute. So when I went to turn the computer back on, it wouldn't boot and would say the "windows/system32/config/system file is missing or corrupt. You can attempt to repair this file be starting windows setup using origional setup CD-ROM. Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair."
But the thing is, I don't have that cd. I have a cd that says System Recovery, if thats it. I tried to use it and got a blue screen..."unmountable boot volume". But on the cd, it says using it will erase all my files. And I don't want to do that.
After that, I tried safe mode and it booted into that. I checked to make sure my files were all still there and they were. But then right after that the whole computer locked up. So I had to reboot it. And now it won't even let me boot into safe mode. I get the same missing file error. I even tried loading the last good config. That didn't work either.
I've been looking all over the net on someone elses computer trying to find anything I can do. And everywhere I go it says to use the start up cd or some say to use a floppy disk (my computer doesn't have a floppy drive).
So is there anyway to fix this or a way to at least get all of my files?
I'm running WinXP media edition. And it's a Gateway desktop about 4 years old.
I'm just at a loss here. I just mostly want to save all my photos on it as I have a year old son and all his baby photos are stored on it and no where else. I do have a general knowledge of computers but have never run into this problem before. So if anyone could help, it would be great. Thanks.

Configuration: Windows XP Internet Explorer 7.0