ysva said:
The problem is a bit bigger now, I cannot execute any program (that also
includes explorer.exe and regedit) but taskmanager. And the execute function
of taskmanager doesn't work either. And it's impossible to do anything but
starting the computer and having a look at the desktopwallpaper and
taskmanager (if I press ALT+CTRL+DELETE), and I also cannot start anything
like the System Restore tool, and I can do as equally much in Safe Mode.
This is officially the worst day in my life.
Let's hope this *is* the worst day of your life because this really
isn't a disaster; it's just inconvenient. Please don't misunderstand,
I'm sympathetic but if this is the worst thing that ever happens to you,
you'll have a nice life. So take a deep cleansing breath and let's get
your data and then do a clean install of Windows. After you get
everything sorted, consider buying an imaging program like Acronis True
Image and an external hard drive. If you image your system and do
regular incremental backups, the next time you decide to play around
with something that hoses Windows you'll be able to get back up and
running in a very few minutes.
A. Get the data - There are various ways to get your data without being
able to boot into Windows. Here are a few:
1. Pull the drive and slave it in a computer running a working install
of XP. Depending on the target drive's characteristics, you may need a
drive adapter; i.e., laptop-to-IDE or a SATA controller card, etc. A
usb/firewire external drive enclosure works very well, too. Use the
working Windows Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard
drive and then burn the data to cd or dvd.
2. Often XP will not boot with a slaved drive that has a damaged file
system (or you may not have a second computer and/or a drive adapter).
In that case, boot the target computer with either a Bart's PE or a
Linux live cd such as Knoppix and retrieve the data that way. Here is
general information on using Knoppix for this:
You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw
OR a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an
external usb/firewire hard drive formatted FAT32 (not NTFS). To get
Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast Internet connection and
third-party burning software. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your
bootable cd. Then boot with it and it will be able to see the Windows
files. If you are using the usb thumb drive or the external hard drive,
right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties and
uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it. Note
that the default mouse action in the window manager used by Knoppix
(KDE) is a single click to open instead of the traditional MS Windows'
double-click. Otherwise, use the K3b burning program to burn the files
to cd/dvd-r's.
http://www.knoppix.net
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - Bart's PE Builder
B. Do a clean install of Windows:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows -
What you will need on-hand
Best wishes,
Malke
