Can't load Windows XP after failed Ubuntu install

I'm very new to Linux and woefully inexperienced technologically, so I should have expected trouble, I suppose.
Ubuntu seemed lovely and accessible, so I downloaded, burned it to USB stick, and tried it out. I then tried to install it alongside Windows, and separated off the amount of space to partition. (I think this is what I did, anyway. As this was my first time doing any of this, my perception and recollection may very well be off.) I waited for this process to finish for a good while, as the program informed me I would, when it was interrupted by an error. After the error, the option of installing Ubuntu alongside Windows was no longer available - only to replace Windows. I was not ready for that level of commitment, so I decided to would go back into Windows and install Ubuntu as an application from there. Upon rebooting, I received a message that said something along these lines:
Windows cannot load because the following file is missing or corrupt: \windows\system32\config\system
It then instructed me to use the Windows install disc and try to repair.

However, I don't think that is the problem. Or at least not the ONLY problem. I can boot from the USB and load Ubuntu. While in Ubuntu, I cannot access the hard drive, or what I am assuming is the partition with Windows and all of my other files on it. When trying to access it, I get this message:

Unable to mount 80GB filesytem
Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 13: Failed to load runlist for $MFT/$DATA.
highest_vcn = 0x63a7, last_vcn - 1 = 0xc363
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for more details.

I have looked through the existing documentation and either didn't find a solution for the problem, or am too ignorant of the subject to understand the solution. Any help would be appreciated. I have some files on this computer that I would very much like access to, but I understand that I have only myself to blame for the predicament.