Windows XP and System32

Hello,
I got a rather interesting call from my girl friend in newyork this evening. She said when she turned on her PC it gave her some error about system32. My guess is the system32 folder got deleted by a virus or worm or something seeing she said the PC will not boot. I am over 3000 miles away so there is little I can do. Is there anything I can try or instruct her to do that may fix this without loosing all the data before I have her send the PC to me? She tried the system restore option but that did not work. I know very little about this PC, but my conclusion was I am going to have to get the drive, back it up to my network then reload it and restore all the files they needed.