Windows XP Welcome Screen : No Users

[Guest]

So I recently purchased Caesar IV, but it kept giving me save file errors. I
thought fair enough, I'll have a look at their forums and see what their
users had to say about it.
Low and behold they found a fix between them, a registry edit. A lot of them
had said it fixed it, so I thought hey, worth a shot, there's even a detailed
guide posted.

So I edited my HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry and added my only windowsXP
account to administration. Since for some reason it was under everyone, which
is why the game wouldn't install correctly apparently.

The guide then told me to log off, and reboot the computer. Alls fair, I try
logging off. Computer doesn't log me off, but is still responding, so I had a
go again, Start >> Log Off. Nothing. So, I thought to myself I'll just
restart. Start >> Restart. Nothing happens.

So I -make- it reboot with the restart switch on the top of my PC. There I
await the boot up, and when it gets to the Welcome Screen, I find there
aren't any user accounts listed. The Heck? So I reboot, again nothing. Ctrl +
Alt + Delete > nothing.

So I go to my trusty WindowsXP diskette, pop it in and click "R" for repair.
Wait 40 minutes for it to reinstall, in the hope it'd ask me to re-register
my details. Nada, zilch. Installed XP again for nothing, still no user
accounts showing up to login too. Ctrl + Alt + Delete // Enter button //
nothing works.

So I call up microsoft, who tell me that although my disk is perfect and
they've checked it out, and it's registered etc, and it's going to cost me to
go and talk to technical support. 40GBP + VAT~ so the phone went down and the
forums got booted up.

I'm in need of a bit of help. since all my files and folders are on there, I
know they're still there, I just need to be able to log on to access them.
I've tried to describe my problem to the letter, so I just hope someone can
help me restore my accounts.

Tried both safe mode, last known good configuration and restore points.
Safe mode won't boot to desktop, it boots to the windows welcome screen, and
again the same problem occurs. Last known good configuration and restore
points do exactly the same.
Sadly I can't access anything further in windows, so my hope was a driver or
recovery program that I could download / whack to a floppy diskette and let
it recover it by itself.
Also had no response from hitting Ctrl Alt Del twice/three times and more
when in the windows welcome screen.

I hope you guys can help, since I really don't want to format and lose all
my data.
Matthew

 

[Rock]

So I recently purchased Caesar IV, but it kept giving me save file errors.
I
thought fair enough, I'll have a look at their forums and see what their
users had to say about it.
Low and behold they found a fix between them, a registry edit. A lot of
them
had said it fixed it, so I thought hey, worth a shot, there's even a
detailed
guide posted.

So I edited my HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry and added my only windowsXP
account to administration. Since for some reason it was under everyone,
which
is why the game wouldn't install correctly apparently.

The guide then told me to log off, and reboot the computer. Alls fair, I
try
logging off. Computer doesn't log me off, but is still responding, so I
had a
go again, Start >> Log Off. Nothing. So, I thought to myself I'll just
restart. Start >> Restart. Nothing happens.

So I -make- it reboot with the restart switch on the top of my PC. There I
await the boot up, and when it gets to the Welcome Screen, I find there
aren't any user accounts listed. The Heck? So I reboot, again nothing.
Ctrl +
Alt + Delete > nothing.

So I go to my trusty WindowsXP diskette, pop it in and click "R" for
repair.
Wait 40 minutes for it to reinstall, in the hope it'd ask me to
re-register
my details. Nada, zilch. Installed XP again for nothing, still no user
accounts showing up to login too. Ctrl + Alt + Delete // Enter button //
nothing works.

So I call up microsoft, who tell me that although my disk is perfect and
they've checked it out, and it's registered etc, and it's going to cost me
to
go and talk to technical support. 40GBP + VAT~ so the phone went down and
the
forums got booted up.

I'm in need of a bit of help. since all my files and folders are on there,
I
know they're still there, I just need to be able to log on to access them.
I've tried to describe my problem to the letter, so I just hope someone
can
help me restore my accounts.

Tried both safe mode, last known good configuration and restore points.
Safe mode won't boot to desktop, it boots to the windows welcome screen,
and
again the same problem occurs. Last known good configuration and restore
points do exactly the same.
Sadly I can't access anything further in windows, so my hope was a driver
or
recovery program that I could download / whack to a floppy diskette and
let
it recover it by itself.
Also had no response from hitting Ctrl Alt Del twice/three times and more
when in the windows welcome screen.

I hope you guys can help, since I really don't want to format and lose all
my data.

From the blank welcome screen what if you do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice, does that
bring up the classic login box. If so type in a username and password, then
go back to regedit and undo the changes you made. Also next time you make
changes in the registry it's a good idea to export a copy of the key you are
going to change so it can be imported if need be to reverse the changes.

 

[Guest]

:
"From the blank welcome screen what if you do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice, does that
bring up the classic login box. If so type in a username and password, then
go back to regedit and undo the changes you made. Also next time you make
changes in the registry it's a good idea to export a copy of the key you are
going to change so it can be imported if need be to reverse the changes.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]"

Thanks for the reply Rock, however I've tried that and it doesn't work,
nothing pops up. I -know- the information is still there, because I've viewed
the size of the Hard Drive in DOS mode, and it's pretty much the same size as
it was last time. I'm going to try booting up the computer using this hard
drive, and my other one as slave, in an attempt to actually get on and start
backing up my data.
It seems inevitable I'm going to be advised to format, but I hope it's not
the case.

Yours
Matthew

 

[Nightowl]

Thanks for the reply Rock, however I've tried that and it doesn't work,
nothing pops up. I -know- the information is still there, because I've viewed
the size of the Hard Drive in DOS mode, and it's pretty much the same size as
it was last time. I'm going to try booting up the computer using this hard
drive, and my other one as slave, in an attempt to actually get on and start
backing up my data.
It seems inevitable I'm going to be advised to format, but I hope it's not
the case.

Matt, it's worth having one more go with the Ctrl-Alt-Delete. It doesn't
work on my computer if I hit/hold down all three keys at once. Try
holding down Ctrl and Alt, then hitting Del twice. This is what works
for me. . .

Good luck!

 

[Rock]

:
"From the blank welcome screen what if you do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice, does
that
bring up the classic login box. If so type in a username and password,
then
go back to regedit and undo the changes you made. Also next time you make
changes in the registry it's a good idea to export a copy of the key you
are
going to change so it can be imported if need be to reverse the changes.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]"

Thanks for the reply Rock, however I've tried that and it doesn't work,
nothing pops up. I -know- the information is still there, because I've
viewed
the size of the Hard Drive in DOS mode, and it's pretty much the same size
as
it was last time. I'm going to try booting up the computer using this hard
drive, and my other one as slave, in an attempt to actually get on and
start
backing up my data.
It seems inevitable I'm going to be advised to format, but I hope it's not
the case.

Yes make sure you backup data first. Then you could try manually editing
the registry by putting the drive as a slave drive in another XP computer.
See this link:

Editing the Registry for "other" Users
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_adv_reg_editing.htm

You could also try using the procedure in this article to restore a previous
copy of the registry.

"How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry That Prevents Windows XP from
Starting"
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=307545

 

[Guest]

Editing the Registry for "other" Users

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_adv_reg_editing.htm

That one worked like a charm. Thanks so much Rock~

 

[Rock]

That one worked like a charm. Thanks so much Rock~

Great Matt, glad I could help and thanks for posting back.