hi guys,
recently my pc has been very slow by which i mean UTTERLY unusable. i have a lot of programs and stuff on it, most of which i dont KNOW what theyre for. i got a virus through msn but after several unsuccesful attempts to GET rid of it i left it because it only affected msn a bit. the pc was very slow BEFORE i got the virus. anyway it was very slow so i turned it off last night and, now my pc wont start up, when i switch it on, before the home screen comes on this message is displayed:
windows could not start because following file is missing or corrupt:
/windows/system32/config/system
you can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the original setup CD-rom. select "r" to attempt to repair it.

i dont know what cd theyre talking about, i was going to do a RECOVERY but it means that id lose all my files. some of which i REALLY dont want to get rid of if possible. i can go into setup but i dont know what to do from there. i pressed r and nothing happened.
any advice or anything is greatly appreciated Lets try to remove the virus and the damage it has done then see if a repair is still needed.

Start HERE