Lost OS's?

[Fused Windows XP OS's]

I was installing some software that edited the registry on a Dell Dimension
2400 running Windows XP. It was not booting up, displaying an error code
autochk.exe not found. I back up the harddrive (not knowing what I was
doing!!!) and have ended up with two unusable computers. What i can figure is
that when I backed it up, the two systems (dell and a sony viao) just blened
together. No, I did not partition or anything like that. Is there any way I
can seperate the two? What are the necessary files to boot a system?

 

[DL]

I think it is time to seek professional help, you should ask them to save
any data, as I assume you have no backups, before they repair

 

[Frank Holman]

Fused Windows XP OS's <Fused Windows XP

I was installing some software that edited the registry on a Dell Dimension
2400 running Windows XP. It was not booting up, displaying an error code
autochk.exe not found. I back up the harddrive (not knowing what I was
doing!!!) and have ended up with two unusable computers. What i can figure is
that when I backed it up, the two systems (dell and a sony viao) just blened
together. No, I did not partition or anything like that. Is there any way I
can seperate the two? What are the necessary files to boot a system?

HTH can a backup of ONE computer "blened [sic]" that computer with
another computer????

You've got a lot more explaining to do... and it will have to be much
clearer than what you've already provided.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

I was installing some software that edited the registry on a Dell Dimension
2400 running Windows XP. It was not booting up, displaying an error code
autochk.exe not found. I back up the harddrive (not knowing what I was
doing!!!) and have ended up with two unusable computers. What i can figure
is
that when I backed it up, the two systems (dell and a sony viao) just
blened
together. No, I did not partition or anything like that. Is there any way
I
can seperate the two? What are the necessary files to boot a system?

From the above..

You crapped out a Dell machine.. It happens..

You then took the hard drive out of the Dell and placed it in a Sony Vaio..
Good move

You backed something up.. not a good move especially as it is not clear to
you or us what you backed up or to where..

OK.. moving forwards..

Presumably there are no working data backups for either machine, so
hopefully there is nothing meaningful on either machine..

If you take both machines to a decent repair outlet, they are going to want
to charge you $$$$$ to recover and re-install both computers. Places around
me charge $135 just to save a clients important stuff. This is on top of
putting everything back and working. You may be able to find a guy locally
who feels sorry for you and will charge less but do not hold your breath..

If you feel that the data on each computer is not worth that much, now would
be a great time to learn about destructive recovery installs..

Presumably, you do at least have the original installation media or recovery
partitions in tact..