Corrupt file on my mini notebook

Hi. I have a Dell Inspiron 910 mini notebook. It has suddenly stopped booting up. after the first screen, I`m getting error message - "Corrupt file -windows\sys. 32\config\system. Start windows set up using original set up CDrom. Select R at the first screen to start repair"

Being a mini notebook, it will not take CD`s, so I`ve transferred all on the set up CD to a usb mem. stick. With this in place, after switching on, the first screen is only giving 2 options - 2. set up, and 0. Boot options.  Clicking 2 gives a set up screen with various options, none of which appear to be of use to me.  Clicking 0 gives a list:- Boot Menu.  Hard drive; CD/DVD drive; Removable Devices; Network boot; Diagnostics. Clicking any of these just gets the original error message back.

I`d be happy to do a complete system restore, but how can I go about this, bearing in mind the above, and the fact that the restore info is on a usb memory stick. I`d appreciate any help.  Many thanks.  

I`ts probably a stupid question, but seeing that I have no external USB optical drive, is it possible to connect my laptop to the mini notebook, and use it`s optical drive to boot up the CD`s??  To buy an external drive for this one off job seems a bit extravagant, but maybe that`s the only solution? 

OK. I have the optical drive from my other laptop. All I need is the cable. I`m unsure of which cable to get. The connection to the CD drive is via a 3 cm slot which houses 3 rows of contacts, 25 each row. I can`t pinpoint exactly which connector I will need. I`d be most grateful if you could clarify this. (As you`ve probably gathered, I`m not too technically advanced in these matters!)    Many thanks.

 Herewith details as requested. Good luck!

You have been extremely helpful, and I`m very grateful, but can I impose just (hopefully) once more. There are numerous enclosures available, most of them SATA. I`m not sure which would be compatible with the DVD drive that I have here.  All I know is that this drive has an IDE interface. Would you be good enough to guide me to a web page (web address) that shows exactly what enclosure I need? Very many thanks.

Unfortunately, no one seems to have the right enclosure for the DVD drive that I have.  Just one question - if I bought an external DVD drive and connected to my mini notebook via USB port, would the re installation CD`s supplied with the notebook, be sufficient to boot it up?  I heard through the grapevine that only linux CD`s would do the job. Many thanks. 

It`s the Windows XP re installation CD as supplied with the notebook. How can I tell if this is bootable? I`d like to try to establish this before going to the expense of buying a DVD drive.

Many thanks for your help.

Yes it certainly mentions op. system. There are 2 CD`s, the 2nd one is drivers. Here are pics of the significant bits.

Great, thanks!   It may take a while, but I`ll post here how I get on.  Many thanks again.

I`ll probably need it!!!