Daniel wrote:
> "kony" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
> news:g6t9f2hhbqpvnmeaaqsa3k6on65lvh79p4@4ax.com...
>
>>On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 19:52:52 -0500, David Maynard
>><nospam@private.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Daniel wrote:
>>>
>>>>I've got a problem where I cant boot into Windows XP Pro. I get an
>
> error
>
>>>>trying to load a corrupted file or something (usually whole system
>
> locks, or
>
>>>>I see the file its trying to load if I select safe mode). Booting up
>
> on my
>
>>>>other XP install on an IDE drive & renaming the bad files doesn't fix
>>>>anything. (This happened after having the computer & surge protector
>
> shut
>
>>>>off for 10 days while I was away, power on, boot up, crash, cant
>
> reboot.
>
>>>>I've had other problems with this board & also now have lost the on
>
> board
>
>>>>NIC too.)
>>
>>
>>
>>>Perhaps I'm missing some subtlety in there but what's wrong with doing a
>>>repair install?
>>>
>>> <snip>
>>
>>
>>Agreed, that would seem a good attempt to get it working
>>again. Remaining two issues are then why the problem,
>>possibly a virus/etc that a repair won't remove, or a drive
>>malfunction making it prudent to first copy off everything
>>no matter what happens next.
>
>
> Sorry for not making that clear in the original post. The reason a repair
> install isn't looked at is because just a repair (twice) didn't fix it (same
> error), & I tried a complete reinstall (non-format) but canceled before it
> started anything because Windows warned me that a new install would kill any
> user accounts & files encrypted or protected by those user accounts.
>
> There is only a single folder outside of the documents & settings area which
> is blocked that I need to copy the contents of. Then reloading Windows is
> no problem.
>
>

As Kony said, copy the needed files off first.

Since you've got a dead system and don't really intend to 'restore' it, per
see, I'd look into some drastic measures to get it back up enough to
decrypt the stuff.

Sure would help to know which file it's complaining about but I suspect
it's something that's in one of the caches so it's being 'restored' after
you delete it. Why it's bad in the cache being another issue.

At any rate, I'd try deleting all the cache sub directories (under windows)
along with your suspect files, wherever they are, and also the service pack
files directory (service pack goes away on a restore anyway). Also
prefetch, software distribution and, for good measure, all the service pack
uninstall directories. Plus clean the temp dir and any other tmp files,
wherever they are.

Then run chkdsk on it and clean up any file system problems, including a
full disk scan (in case of bad sectors).

Run a virus scan on it.

They try another repair reinstall.