Could you please describe why you were restoring in the first place?

How did this issue start?

Do you have SP2?

Was XP pre installed on this computer? If so what is the exact make and model of computer? Do you have the Recovery Disks?

Or did you install XP off a retail disk? Which you have: yes?

I restored because I was getting lots of pop ups after my kids had visited me. I thought by restoring it might help losing them. I had also been introduced to Mozilla Firefox a few days earlier.

I do have sp2

Xp was pre installed. No recovery disc.

The computer was built for me by a computer shop so doesn't have a brand name as such. I asked for the best one for online game playing.

I bought it about 2 years ago.
Cheers.

Every computer should come with a Recovery Disk which would have been your builder's responsibility. Pet peeve: sorry.

Sounds like you got a virus or at least some bad Malware.

Try launching explorer.exe from Task Manager, and see if it gives you an error.

If it gives you the "Explorer.exe has encountered a problem" error.
Look in the "Click Here" information for a Mod Name, and if it is there it will likely be a *.SYS or *.DLL file, and if it is there, that file is causing your problems.


Also see if you can boot into Safe Mode proper. As you tried above rather that Last Known Good choose Safe Mode.

Your screen will fill up with a driver list ... just let this run for a few minutes and see if Safe Mode comes up.

I tried explorer.exe but the task bar on the bottom lit up then quickly disappeared. No box appeared.
I'll try the safe mode option now.

Safe mode option explored. If I choose safe mode I just get a black screen with safe mode in the two top corners. If I select restore I once again can only go back to my first restore date. All restore points prior are not accessible.

Safe Mode should have displayed a long list of drivers filling up your screen and then eventually gone into XP with Safe Mode displayed at all four corners.

This sometimes takes a few to several minutes.

If this does not happen try going back into the Task Manager and look under Processes.

If there is an Explorer.exe already running then right click it and shut it down (End). Then go back to Run and try to restart explorer.exe

Next question just preparing for the worst: do you have a floppy drive on this affected computer?

Safe mode was as you described. But when I selected either of the two options the bottom two safe mode signs disappeared and the rest of the screen was black.

No explorer.exe running in task manager.

31/2 floppy drive available.

Do you have Home or Pro?

If Pro go back to the Task Manager and type:

control userpasswords2 and select to logon to the Main Administrator account.

If Home try Ctrl Alt Delete twice in succession.


Otherwise:



Microsoft offers a 6 floppy XP setup package.

How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks

Note that you need to download your exact version e.g. XP Home SP2 etc.

At the end of running the 6 floppies you should be able to enter the Recovery Console by pressing R.

If you get here the first step would be chkdsk /r

Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console

I have pro.

I can access the Main Administrator account. What do I do there? How do I log on? No facilty to log on available ( I think ).

I will buy some high density discs tomorrow and try the set up download. Thanks again.

Unless you have set (or someone else has set) a password on that main account pressing Enter at the blank password should work.

Here we are assuming that another account was corrupted. In most cases the Built in Administrator is left in an emaculate state just for these scenerios.

One would hope that your other admin account was a different account.

From control userpasswords2 choose Administrator and if you have not set a password just press Enter.