Drive is half dead, system boots kinda, is config.xml useful or not? Please...

[NetGobbler]

Sorry to hassle here, but my system has failed an update, likely due to a dying drive.
However, it does boot enough for me to see the filesystem and I do see a config.xml file.

Google however isn't actually confirming for me that it's of any use to me?   Is it as simple as recovering this file? 


Yes I understand I should have backups and I do but they're a little old and if this method is viable I'm happy to try it.
Thanks anyone who has time to respond, I do appreciate it.

[NetGobbler]

Ok I hope this helps others, who find this.

So since the machine partially booted, I was able to totally recover fine with the config.xml file being imported after re-installing the system.

Copying it off as a low to medium skilled person, was quite difficult via USB.  I ended up configuring my LAN interface ip using ifconfig en0 inet etc etc to get the LAN back up and then use SCP to send the files from /conf/ to my server.

Once you re-install and restore the config, you will notice the plugins section is even kind enough to list all the plugins you had which are missing.

I've fixed those, placed the config file back on a second time for the heck of it, rebooted and it's fantastic.