Hive file

I just bought a used computer come to find out the hive file is corrupted or deleted. Is there any way to fix the problem? Also I have read up a lot on this and I get the steps mostly, I am really unclear how to get to the recovery console. As far as I can see it has windows 2000 pro, but will not start up at all once it tries to boot up windows it shuts down and repeats the same steps. Could you please help?