I did a Normal Recovery before, sorry my mistake. Did it twice. I've never done a Full Recovery, altough I am thinking about it...but I am not sure what programs it will delete and take away...I am afraid I'll have to buy new software...

Yeah it was brand new from Best Buy, no software CD came with it...

I would suggest a Full Recovery but from my reading it requires the Compaq XP disk.

Yes you will have to reload all your programs.

If a Normal Recovery retains all that corruption I really don't know of an alternative.

The computer should have been sold with Recovery CD's. Contacting Compaq or Best Buy might be a good idea. They may offer you disks.

Unless: Some HP and Compaq PCs have recovery CD creator software that can create a recovery CD or DVD set. As seen here:

HP and Compaq Desktop PCs - Obtaining a Recovery CD or DVD set

Also at that link you can Order recovery CDs on the Web etc.