Won't boot after restore

[Ben]

I ran the windows xp system recovery tool in an attempt to
restore my pc to a particular date. the process appeared
to run successfully, but the pc won't boot to windows. i
end up at a black screen with a mouse arrow and that's
it. no dos prompt. i can't boot to safe mode and i can't
use last known good configuration. since then i've tried:

1. confirming that the bios recognizes the hard drive and
re-setting the bios settings.

2. running a non-destructive system recovery.

3. downloading and installing the software patch to fix
the issue with SP1 after a system restore is performed.

all of these efforts led me to the same black screen.

does anyone have any ideas other than performing a
destructive system recovery/format?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Guest]

Please let me know why you were performing System Restore?

 

[Rock]

I ran the windows xp system recovery tool in an attempt to
restore my pc to a particular date. the process appeared
to run successfully, but the pc won't boot to windows. i
end up at a black screen with a mouse arrow and that's
it. no dos prompt. i can't boot to safe mode and i can't
use last known good configuration. since then i've tried:

1. confirming that the bios recognizes the hard drive and
re-setting the bios settings.

2. running a non-destructive system recovery.

3. downloading and installing the software patch to fix
the issue with SP1 after a system restore is performed.

all of these efforts led me to the same black screen.

does anyone have any ideas other than performing a
destructive system recovery/format?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

What do you mean by "running a non-destructive system recovery"? Do you
mean you did a repair install using the windows installation CD or some
other method of recovery based on the OEM's recovery CDs?