Now I'm getting a boot stop and can't boot from CD

[spence]

System: Dell Dimension 2400, XP Home SP2

So yesterday the computer was acting a bit freaky, eventually hung so I gave it a hard restart...

Now I'm getting a blue screen on boot

Stop Code c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SAM

Seems to be a pretty common problem when the registry gets whacked. Buuuuutttt...

So my hard drive is showing errors when I run the internal diagnostics, and I'm unable to boot the OEM Windows XP disc from the primary CD drive to access the repair tools or even get a command prompt.

It looks like the BIOS recognizes the IDE CD drive, but I'm not able to get the "press any key to boot from CD" prompt. It just says F1 to boot from CD over and over (when pressed), and I don't see any activity on the CD drive.

I don't have an XP boot floppy, or any real way to make one in the house.

Ideas?

thanks - spence