Thank you both very much.  I was able to do this and all of my files are intact.  I am backing up tonight just in case.  Some applications seem to be odd but that is not a big deal.  At least if my hard drive crashes soon I will have all my documents and pictures on an external hard drive.  Thanks for your patience in walking me through this. Tim
I am getting the message "windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt 'c\windows\system32\config\system. I can not get to the Recover Console and don't have a re-installation cd.  Is there anything I can do other than request the CD from Dell.  The only CD that came with the Dimension 9100 was for Office 2003.  If I have a friend with an XP installation CD would it work on my PC to get it booted up?  Does this sound like something that is recoverable?  Hopefully I am not going to need a new PC right now. Thanks for any help you can provide.
Re-Installation CD