Error -- The registry cannot load the hive (file)

Hello friends and neighbors,

Can anyone steer me in the right direction to solving this problem? Thanks much in advance.... -- Claude

The following message appears on my laptop (XP) during booting. If it's not a home fix job with the original CD, Norton, etc, is it something a computer repair shop could fix? Or is it better to remove the hard drive and recover the data on another computer?

STOP: c000021S {Registry file failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file);
\SystemRoot\System32\config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternate,
It is corrupt, absent or not writable

Thanks.

Claude