Acronis? My uncle put it on there and never explained it to me.

I'll see what I can come up with. It may be better to have someone (your uncle) show you (which is how I got started). It is fairly straight-forward, really, but fairly long-winded to explain and document.

Suggest using a new hard drive with two partitions - at least 20-50GB on the second partition and 100GB or more on the first partition. I use Acronis to backup to an external drive (on the 2nd partition). Then I run Acronis again to convert/recover such a backup to a separate clean/ new external drive or the 1st partition as previously referred to. Replace the external drive for your existing drive and see how it goes. Using this method, prior existing drive remains unaltered at all times.

Since my drives are SATA, I use the very productive/affordable 'docking station' products listed here:
Thermaltakeusa»Storage»Docking Station

1) My computer doesnt detect that I have any speakers.

Wouldn't be expected to detect speakers. Need to enable/identify/configure them to your system. Try troubleshooting help:

Click on desktop on a blank area>F1 [help key]>hardware>microphones & speakers>Sound Troubleshooter>"I do not hear sound"

2) deleted some services. They no longer appear on any lists of services. The two ones that I know of (and need) are Cryptographics services and System restore service. Is it even possible to recover them without a complete reinstall of Windows?

I don't have a specific answer to this. You might have more luck asking in the 'XP FORUM'. The following search term results might prove helpful:

xp reinstall repair Cryptographics services - Google Search

xp reinstall repair "system restore service" or "system restore services" - Google Search

Wouldn't be expected to detect speakers. Need to enable/identify/configure them to your system. Try troubleshooting help:

Click on desktop on a blank area>F1 [help key]>hardware>microphones & speakers>Sound Troubleshooter>"I do not hear sound"

Seems like I've deleted the help and support service too. When I try to access it, it says the service isn't running. But it's not on the list of services available. Bummer

A tool such as SFC may be able to help resolve some of your issues but an install disk may be needed to do this.


Use the System File Checker (SFC) :
(typical runtime is 30 minutes) - please read over all instructions before proceeding.


Sometimes when you install third party software, it may overwrite important operating system files. This can cause instability - or worse. Windows XP includes a command line tool that you can use if you think this may have happened (for example, if you get a message box warning that there is a problem with a .dll or the system just seems unstable). Here's how to use it:

1. Click Start | Run.
2. In the Run box, type/copy&paste:
   SFC /scannow (notice the space plus slash).
   
3. Windows will scan all protected Windows files to verify that they are intact and in their original versions. If they're not, corrupt, missing or incorrect files are replaced. You may be prompted to insert your Windows XP installation CD if your Dllcache folder (where Windows keeps a copy of essential system files) has become corrupt or has been deleted.

To avoid the possibility of having to dig out and insert the OS CD, you can copy the i386 folder from the installation CD to your hard disk, and just point Windows there to find the files it needs. For instructions on how to do so, and more info about scannow, see:
scannow sfc - LEARN how to use SFC.EXE (system file checker) in this article!

Using Acronis:


Tutorials with video: tutorial acronis video - Google Search


Tutorials -non-video: tutorial acronis 10 -video - Google Search