Can this XP crash be saved?

[Hugh Verdam]

System=WINXP Pro SP2. I'm better 'n average with most computer
issues, but by no means an expert.

I had a crash yesterday that has left me in quite a state. The last
two things I did were install Symantec antivirus and used a registry
cleaners. After the registry cleaner did its thing, but while it was
still running, Windows crashed and rebooted.

Windows XP now boots, but many parts are missing. For example, the
system tray that used to have about 8 icons in it now has one. Most
of my start menu is gone, including all of "All Programs." All
programs are still installed and working, but the menu itself is
trashed. It looks like a few icons are gone from the control panel.

In addition, Windows doesn't seem to know where stuff is. For
example, if I enter "msconfig" in Start->Run, it can't find it. Other
things like "regedit" or "services.msc," no problem. I can still
click on and run msconfig if I get into the directory via Windows
Explorer.

If I click on Start->Help and Support, Windows can't find helpctr.exe.
Again, I can run it if I click on it directly. It's like someone
erased the "paths" we used to set in autoexec.bat in the DOS days.

About half my services are stopped. The most maddening among them, of
course, is "System Restore." There are tons of what I believe are
"System Restore Points" inside "System Volume Information." (Am I
right? Is that what they are?) However, if I click on the System
Restore Wizard, I get "System Restore is not able to protect your
computer." If I try to start it in "services.msc," I get "Error 1114:
A dynamic link library (DLL) initialization routine failed."

It's very frustrating to have the solution so close, but be unable to
get to it.

I have not tried to re-install XP over the top of this mess, because I
don't know if that will fix it or make it worse. Also, since my last
install I have upgraded to SP2 and don't know if that will be a
problem.

Any ideas? Let me know if you need any more information. Thanks!

 

[Hugh Verdam]

Also....win.ini in c:\windows is EMPTY! I wonder if there's another
one on my system somewhere. Can't search for it because, of course,
search is broken too....

 

[Dave B.]

You did probably the worst 2 things you could do to a computer, install
Norton AV (Macafee is a tie) and run a registry cleaner.
Lesson learned. Have you tried a restore point?

 

[John John]

Look in the registry destroyer, er... I mean cleaner, and see if there
is an undo or restore feature. The box is most likely compromised
beyond manual repair. Try an in-place (repair) installation and if the
results of the repair installation are not satisfactory you will have to
flatten the box and reinstall Windows from scratch. Such are the trial
and tribulations of "Registry Fixers" gone amuck!

John

 

[Hugh Verdam]

Since the post, I found a copy of win.tmp that I could rename to
win.ini. Dont know if that made difference. :-o But at least I
repaired that empty file.

It turns out that the super duper registry cleaner did save all
changes. I didn't bother using it again. I just clicked on the
backup.reg file and let regedit import all the stuff that was taken
out.

Then I did a warm reboot, but it didn't change a thing. Maybe that
wasn't what caused the problem in the first place. Who knows?

What I keep wondering--how can all of my menus be in the appropriate
"Start Menu" folder under "Documents and Settings" yet still not show
up on my desktop?!

Why doesn't Windows know its paths anymore?

And why can't I get that @#$$ System Restore started?

All very strange.

 

[Jim]

Since the post, I found a copy of win.tmp that I could rename to
win.ini. Dont know if that made difference. :-o But at least I
repaired that empty file.

It turns out that the super duper registry cleaner did save all
changes. I didn't bother using it again. I just clicked on the
backup.reg file and let regedit import all the stuff that was taken
out.

Then I did a warm reboot, but it didn't change a thing. Maybe that
wasn't what caused the problem in the first place. Who knows?

What I keep wondering--how can all of my menus be in the appropriate
"Start Menu" folder under "Documents and Settings" yet still not show
up on my desktop?!

Why doesn't Windows know its paths anymore?

And why can't I get that @#$$ System Restore started?

All very strange.

Perhaps it is time for a repair installation. As for the paths, something
has deleted the environment variables that define the paths. Possibly the
same thing is also the reason that system restore doen't work.
Jim

 

[John John]

Maybe you can launch System Restore from a Safe Mode Command Prompt?

How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449/en-us

If you can't start System Restore from there you might be able to use a
different technique to return the registry to an earlier version, it
entails working from the recovery console or from a parallel installation.

John