\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM corrupted

I don't know where to put this in the newsgroups, as I am only a newbie. My
apologies if this is the wrong place.

On my son's pc we have a corrupt system registry.
He forgets to shut it down and just switches it off at the power point.
Several months ago I fixed the boot and it worked ok.
After switching it off incorrectly again yesterday we had an Unmountable
Boot Volume error.
I used the original xp disc (home edition) to fix an unmountable boot
volume. It appeared to work fine yesterday, and restarted several times.

Today it had the corrupt system registry folder (as described in subject
above).

I successfully followed step 1 on the

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

page. I can now restart in safe mode and have saved my son's documents to
my usb stick. I can live without the rest of the stuff on the disc if it
dies/gets wiped.

This page also has Steps 2, 3 & 4. I am not quite sure how to do Step 2, and
don't quite understand the bit about the snapshot folder. I can't even work
out how to find it ?? I am unsure as to whether i have to do these steps, or
whether I can simply stop after having done Step 1, which has now allowed me
to get into safe mode.
I was thinking that the worst case scenario will be that I have to reinstall
windows if I don't do steps 2 - 4.
I should probably tell you that i have never reinstalled any windows oes,
ever - so I am presuming that this will be in my range of capabilities.
Please tell me if you think that it would not be from what I have written,
or give me any important tips to remember whilst doing this.

I would be grateful for any advice regarding this situation, in particular
regard to steps 2 - 4.

I am thinking i should just turn the hidden files and folders setting back
to default, and leave the rest alone. Then see if it works in normal mode as
before.....

Thank you so very much for any help you can give me.
.

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