XP pro setup: Mouse and Keyboard don't work

[Jim manning]

Hi,
I updated win2k to XP pro( it was NOT a clean install)
last year. Yesterday, it won't boot saying

sytem32\winnt\isapnp.sys is corrupt or not there

I used my XP pro CD to do repair of the installation
(wherein it deletes some files and then copies lot of
system files). Now after that setup says that it will
proceed further after rebooting. After rebooting when the
setup window comes up (with blue background) it says
file 'asms' is needed (the 'installing windows' button is
red, previous ones are green at this time). However, now
the mouse and keyboard do not work !! So basically I am
stuck there. Any ideas what I should do ? I don't want to
lose valuable data on my hard drive. :-(
Setup doesnot work in safe mode and I have tried various
keybds and mouse but that also doesn't solve the problem.
Is this happening because of the various patches and fixes
that I have installed on XP since last year? Is there some
way to salvage the data even if it means going back to
win2k?

 

[Pat Cully]

Have you tried using the recovery console by booting to
the CD, on the welcome screen press R to boot to Recovery
Console.
You will need the Admin. password to log on.

 

[Jim Manning]

Yes, I get into the recovery console (i have the admin
passwd). Now what.......