alright, I've got a little bit of a problem I read the links you gave me and they helped a little but there was a link on one that described what had happened to my computer pretty much so I read it and did everything it said, except I forgot to copy c:\system volume information\(snapshot subfolder)_registry_machine_security to my c:\windows\system32\config\security folder like it says to do here:

http://www.digitalwebcast.com/articl...le.jsp?id=8658

but the main problem is that I had already deleted the security file from C"config" and now my second hard drive the one that crashed will load xp but stops because security is the logon and passwords and things and it says that the password is incorrect, luckily I can still operate my second hard drive and I copied the file but how do I do this:

copy c:\windows\tmp\_registry_machine_security c:\windows\system32\config\security

in windows?

I have never tried that method but I have reviewed it a few times.

The first thing I would try is to see if you can just drag and drop it.

Have both drives open: the one to: c:\windows\tmp and the other to c:\windows\system32\config\security

See if you can hold click on the first and drag to the second and drop. Choose Copy here. Agree to overwrite. etc.

well therein lies the problem I tried that but security is not a folder it's a file and if I were to copy the registry file to the folder it would just put it in the folder it wouldn't overwrite anything unless I change rename it to security, what do you think?

should I rename it?

I copied the contents of the registry file to the security file in the config, I'm gonna try it' will let you know.

didn't work, I think it may have had something to do with all the files not being copied because when I look in the folder there are no _registry_machine or _registry entries at all.

I would recommend starting over and let the XP disk run a Repair Install.

If you want to pursue the other course I will look around and see what I can find but it will take time.

I did a repair install I forgot to mention and the same error this:

lsass.exe error

the password was trying to update but the current password is not correct or something of that nature.

This is basically what you were doing I believe. Just see if anything here might help:

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting

There is a lot to read on this error

http://www.google.com/search?lr=&ie=...the%20password

well, thank you, but I found out that the repair had erased the system restore files, and now I have all the files there luckily but they're not listed in my add/remove programs and I have no tabs when I go into the desktop properties.

and it's all mix and match some of the boxes or folders look like xp style others have a 98 look and some have a mixture of both.

the links you gave me are what I did, but I just thought if I renamed then to names in the file it work which is what it says, and it did work don't get me wrong but the repair installation I did beforehand not only didn't fix the lsasse.exe error but it also removed all the restore points so there was nothing to go back to, so luckily I don't have to start completely over all the files, folders, settings and users are there xp just chooses not to see them.

You can always extract the data you want then run a Clean Install. This will format the drive installing XP as new.

You would then have to reinstall all programs etc.