Ok my computer is officially dead.

I turn it on and wait while it starts up, after a few seconds it gets to my desktop.

Only problem, there's nothing there. Just my wallpaper. After calling the fine people over at dell, they say that my computer just erased everything on my hard drive (Then how the fuck do I still have my wallpaper?) And that I'll need to format and reinstall XP.

I can use the functions before startup (F10, etc) that's basically what I've discovered that I can work with at this point.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

And if I cant fix it, how can I get XP back since I no longer have the installation discs.

I have access to another computer so I can burn whatever I need to.

No, it doesn't work in safe mode.

And yes I've tried turning it off and back on again. Repeatedly.

 

Have you tried to do a ctrl alt delete, then click on 'New Task', then type explorer

 

Try this FILLER

Edit:

I just saw how old that first link was. If the Google results I'm seeing are to be believed, your problem is probably malware-related. Try something like this and see if that helps.

 

Doesn't work.

explorer.exe is already running, I can end the task and run a new one, but nothing changes.

Didn't work. Said that I couldnt scan one of the drives because it was either encrypted, damaged, computer wasn't shut down properly, or Microsoft randomly felt like fucking me in the ass.

...

At this point I have my task manager to work with and that's it. I've looked for problems like this, and there are quite a few people out there with them. Most are resolved with the explorer.exe fix, but there are a number of people out there who are in the same situation as me.

I know XP like I know the back of my hand, I'm not worthless with computers, hell I'm the guy a lot of people go to when they have problems with their computers.

But when it comes down the hidden inner workings, don't know shit.

Ideas?

If I download XP and burn it to a disc, any way I can use it to repair whatever's wrong? And if so, how the hell can I run it from task manager?

 

Try getting an XP install disc, boot to it, go to the partition manager, select your OS partition and try repairing from there.

 

Could try getting a hard drive with XP already installed, plonk it in your problem computer as master and the existing one as slave, and then go in and investigate and hopefully fix the problem.

Or just pull the dud hard drive out, plug it into an external rig, and give it a once-over on another computer, if you want to do things the easy way.

 

Got an XP torrent, burned the image, its repairing now.

Hopefully this will work.

 

Temporary solution to many of your problems, making the computer at least 'workable' until you find a more permanent solution. You can start up any program by doing this, just hit browse for the command prompt and go to the .exe for any program that you'd need.

Also, sorry if you already knew this.

 

The problems seems to be related to the desktop folder becoming corrupted. This generally occurs when you try to take ownership or due to bad sectors.

The OS tries to get your profile details but can't since they have become corrupted. One solution to this problem is create another user profile from Computer Management. Create this user as an administrator.

Try logging from that user. You can copy content from the corrupted profile to this user profile. There might be some loss of data but it is still better than formatting your computer or reinstalling XP.

 

Ok, during repair it says "Computer will now restart and continue repairs"

When it restarts however, and starts doing what it should be doing, a message saying.

"Insufficient resources exist to complete the API"

Then the comp restarts, and does the exact same thing.

 

Does it happen when you use Safe Mode?

 

I'm slowly winning the war here, battle by battle.

Mid repair I decide to throw the F-Rescue disc in. Found a motherfucking Sasser worm, which causes the lsass.exe crash (error I mentioned above) I'm dealing with it now. Hopefully once F-Rescue is done I can finish the repair process.

 

Reformatting.

My computer pwned me...

 

I always recommend reformatting after a malware infection, anyway (after you recover your data, virus scan it, then scan it again before you restore it that is).

You can't ever be completely sure that you got rid of everything otherwise.

 

lols nub

Create a new user in safe mode and use it to boot up. Use the task manager to load services.msc and get rid of the worm starting up, you'll the files pretty easily. Spybot, AVG etc on new user account and hey presto, done without reformatting. If the worm was decent and did system files not specific then safe mode will usually boot unless it's a core system file. Use it with network access to transfer files and then reboot.

Tehan: You cant put a hard drive with xp on it into another computer and boot off it. XP is installed and takes a hardware imprint which identifies which computer it is installed on. If you change the motherboard on a XP installation, the windows install goes corrupt. Best thing to do is to take the HDD and use it in a different computer, using it as a master and the other hdd as the slave to copy whats on it off.

 

You can swap HDD's, however, if Ubuntu is on it.

Just saying...

Anyway, I'd get a Linux CD from somewhere (friend, borrow a PC and download) and use the...well, I forget what it's called but basically you run the OS from the CD. I've done this a few times, once when I didn't have any HDD's left, and it works. Do this, recover your data via an external HDD or an USB stick and then seriously consider formatting. It's the safest bet.

I always format the first hint of malware infections because I do banking on my PC. As a precaution, I always change my banking details on the Ubuntu boot-cd OS without any HDD's plugged in, just to be safe.