Systems Preferences

all of my systems preferences got deleted (long story) so all I see is OTHER, so their is barely or much that I can do...so my mac warns me at boot up that my clock is off and that is causing me certificate problems and as you can imagine the list goes on and on.....part ofmy other problem is that my CD rom does not work, I do have the Mac OS CD(10.5.8) but I cannot figure out how to get those preferemces back and if all I dont want to pay money to get if fixed...of couse that is my last resourse....also and glad I did this I back up all my data on external...but when I go to copy files over it tells me that I do not have enough HD space ...which I do...any help would be GREAT..

What sort of mac is it and how old is it?

Specs

Power Book Pro G4, with system 10.5.8, i baught it from a friend about 4 years ago..so it might be around 6yrs old....it works great till some yahoo deleted my prefs....that would be my MOM..again long story....

Reinstalling the OS from the restore disc will bring all the system preferences back. I'd recommend backing up and data you don't want to lose first.