Boot disk needed

Go easy on me - a relative newbie here!

Rather stupidly, I obeyed an instruction from an obsolete piece of
Virus scanning software to delete a particular file that appears to be
vital for the functioning of my laptop. It's an Amilo M 7400 Centrino
1.4 combo running Windows XP Home Edition.

When it boots up, I get to the splash screen, but then come to a
screen telling me that the computer did not shut down properly, and
asking me if I want to do a "safe start", "safe start with
networking", or a "normal start". Hitting any of these options brings
me (eventually) back to this screen. I have a kind of Linux boot disk,
which starts the computer but thereafter, I'm clueless, so I assume
that there are no physical problems with the computer, and that what I
have actually done is to delete something vital for XP to start up.
I am wondering if what I need is a boot disk, that would allow me to
either repair this installation, and how I would go about getting one.
I have also searched high and low for the recovery disk and cannot
locate it. Could I source either of these from the people who sold me
the laptop a couple of years ago ? The recovery disk is of course the
nuclear option, but may be my only choice.

Any help at all would be gratefully received, including perhaps more
appropriate forums to raise this issue.
.

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