@UniKat53
if you know a little dos, you can use cmd via Recovery console, from the xp cd.
boot from cd, press r, type instalation number, password(or just press enter)
First you could run a chkdisk, just in case.
Plan a: Usually 8E errors are related to Ntoskrnl. You might have a backup somwhere on your hard of ntoskrnl.exe (service pack folder, dllcache,etc) . Backup the original(rename its extension) and copy the one U found to system 32.
Plan b: This is kind of a system recovery, from dos:
Using recovery console, go to the System32\Config folder and backup(rename the extension) of the
System,Software, etc files in there. (to see all files use a dir command)
Copy from the repair folder , the System,Software,etc files to to System32\Config folder .
Eg.
copy C:\Windows\Repair\system C:\windows\System 32\Config
or give it a "*.*" command to copy all files at once.
Plan C: Do a repair install, even if I don't like it, sometimes it's the last thing U could do.
for more details write, and I'll write back.