Wow, this must be my lucky day!
I JUST had this issue 4 days ago!!
Here is what i did-
Turn computer on and keep hitting F8 to go to boot menu, choose Safe Mode with command prompt.
it will probably set you at c:\documents and settings
If it does, type the following(type each line then hit enter)
cd..
cd windows
cd system32
cd config
ren systemp system
Thats it!
Of course if it doesnt set u at the default dir above, just go into the c:\windows\system32\config directory then from there u will use the rename command-
ren systemp system (then press enter, of course)
It renamed my system file to systemp. If it says file does not exist or something like that, while in the config directory, type this in-
dir /w (then press enter)
and look for any file that starts with system
The REAL system file has no extension file, it is just called system.
After you do this, log into Windows, right click My Computer, choose properties.
Now click Hardware tab and choose Device Manager.
Hit plus sign next to Disk Drives and double click the Hard drive that has your Operating system installed on it.
Now go to the Policies tab and uncheck- Enable write disk caching.
This should prevent this from happening again.
I did this because i did a hard restart and it messed this file up by renaming it.