lately my computer has been acting funny on me and running extremely slow i went to run a ddefrag and noticed that my system was 93% fragmented so i have been trying to dewfreag it but the windows defrager wouldnt work cause it was too fragmented so i started using third party defrag systems over and over and deleting tons of files. however even after i delete some files the memory doesnt free up and after i uninstall some files they wont go away
so i decide to recover my pc to original setting throuigh the recovery drive
however now it tells me wen i start the program that there is a bad registry file and it just stops

i have no windows xp disk
windows xp comes on my computer


so how do i recover my computer to how it was when i got it

ps
i did finally get the computer defragmented

Firstly - have you got an XP install disk? If not it may be against forum rules to help you out.
Unless...
Is it a laptop? If so what make/model?
Do you have a recovery disk?

Finally (dumb question time) Have you made any backups????

PS Never run defrag with a screensaver - (or is this just a 98 thing?) Anyways remember that defragging is pulling your system files and plonking them back down again - interrupting this process unexpectedly can have drastic results on your OS.

Personally:

1. I defrag as a sole operation.
2. I ensure other tasks will not interrupt it (screensavers etc)
3. I turn off Disk cacheing as I don't want my kernel to dissappear into the ether.

Run chkdsk frequently

Finally, remember the value of (faces wind and .......) always backing data up

Just wondering, you said that when you delete files and they dont go away. Do you mean as in freeing up HD space. The reason I ask is there is a virus that specificaly fills up the HD with files untill full of its self you might say.

If you can get on line you can check at

security.symantic.com

Here you can test your computer for infections if you have any.

The url is incorrect ... sorry

it is
security.symantec.com

LOL

Try here:
http://www.symantec.com/cgi-bin/securitycheck.cgi

Hehe for some reason I feel like someone knew I would mispell that url

Grammar sintax and semanticks eh? :->