cannot boot after using a restore point

boot of the XP CD and when its loaded - it will give you the "R" for repair option.
press 'r' and go into the command window and type
CHKDSK /r  this may correct the problem - then reboot and see if its worked.

bascially do a chkdsk / r on your system disc - its not a re-install of XP just a chkdsk.  its worth trying.

Well things have gone from bad to ridiculous. Thank you MS windows XP Pro. I had to go with the repair install because after trying the registry repair I got missing or corrupt c_1252.nls. I tried the install of file as directed in article but it still cannot find this file.
I bit the bullet and started a repair install. Did this from the windows xp pro disk. XP Deleted and copied files to start repair process.  After copy files install stopped said could not continue see administrator. As I am administrator I am at a loss  as to what I should do. I am aware I have lost my recent email and that is terrible and is going to cost me . I do have a backup of the system in True image secure zone as well as on separate drive backup from True  IMAGE 11 as of 12\\24\2907 I tried to repair using true image 11 using back up to replace the entire windows directory but still comes up with the missing or corrupt c_1252.nls.
I'm at a loss and am still down. I can try to install again because of the True Image file replacements but wanted to ask you what to do before destroying any more of this program from Hell.
I hope you can help me. I pulling out the few hairs left on my stumped, confused head and can use an Expert's Excahnge miracle about now.
Thank you for your help thus far. I await your kind, prompt help .As always thank you in advance.
Stan

you didn't try ther 'r' repair option and do chkdsk?  the reason why it couldn't load those fiels was the disc was corrupt not that thefiles were missing...ok too late now...
what was the error message when the repair install failed?

Sorry for the confusion. I did the chkdsk /r. It found a few problems but nothing noted. It was after that process that I tried the repair install. As I said, it did the usual delete and copy process. When it finished the error I got was a bit obscure, "unable to continue contact administrator."
If you wish I can try again to get it all verbatim. Sorry when I got the error I was called away to do the husband helps the wife or the computer will be destroyed by her heat ray stare. You do not want that stare. It can kill. When I got back it was tooo lste and lost the screen.
I await your kind reply.
I saw mention somewhere in my travels that IE7 had to be removed as it would not function afterwards but it made no mention of repair problems if the process was not done.
Again sorry I did not mention the chkdsk process.
Stan

I keep trying but cannot find solution hope you can help so I can get up and running soon. Thanks
Stan

i think the blame lies with the heat ray stare, obviously you did not leavequickly enough.
if it were me - i would retry the repair install.
then if that failed - do a new install WITHOUT reformatting then at least all user info is kept

I hate my life!
I had to go the route of install over existing install. That went OK but when I got in all my information is there but not usable. Can I overwrite the new user information with the old information still intact and if I do this will it bring me back or whaqt? I have to tell you this is getting very dark indeed.
THIS NEEDS YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE Sorry not meaning to yell  just want you to see this.
When I got back in windows like I said I am at square one but what is worse, the D drive where i have all my important information is no longer seen. If I try to open the drive letter it says RAW do I want to format? NO! I do not, I want to get this drive back so Windows XP Pro Sp2 sees it. As I know you guys can walk on water I thought this would be an easy one for you.
Please tell me what to do to make this happen. A Point, I have Acronis True Image 11 installed secure Zone on this drive. It sees this information without a hitch and it shows up in recovery console environment as well,
Please help return what little sanity I have at this point and tell me how to fix this latest issue. Quickly too as the stare has started again and I have no protection from it's piercing glare.
Stan ( I hate Microsoft and Acronis) Baker

OK guys don't give up on me now. Just for clarification. I had  a crash, you know, Windows XP Pro, Crash. A lot of them seem to be happening to a lot of people. Go figure. And I thought Microsoft was infallible.  Anyway I did what one does when things go south, I chose a restore point, rebooted, and the rest is history so it's said.

Thus my present debacle. Why the D drive is shown as RAW when I am using it at this moment in Unbutu Linux 7.10 just beats the bejeezes out of me. I know that Acronis may be involved here someplace but frankly it does not matter at this point because I need to get the drive back regardless of my either bad luck, or (and I'm going out on a limb here) I got very stupid in the last few days. No snickering I can tell. Not fun to make fun of the legally blind man with the thinking issues. Regardless I need to get the drive to be seen by Windows XP Pro so I can decide to either blow off my present Windows sessions which at this point is without my past information. To format and install Acronis then restore files I had up until the 24th of December or with your good help possibly restore my present account with the account on the drive but not being used because of the crash, or, which in this case may be best, go directly to MS. Find the mental midget that wrote the Restore utility and behead him or wait for you very nice people  get back to me and helps me fix this paperweight.
I look forward to a reply. Perhaps this and the last email written will help things be clearer. In any case I await your reply.

have you changed the link settings on that hard drive that is now 'raw' ? or cable select?
I ask as the only I've seen this is when I put the links back incorrectly on a HD and windows couldn't see it.

I'll ask the the forum to send some more experts....

I appreciate the forum referral and look forward to any help I can get. Unbelievable how using supposed restore point to correct a minor error can cause so much chaos, time, and patience. Done it dozens of times but this is the first time it destroyed a system profile. What a great company be Microsoft. Only Bill and the clan at Redmond would make a system that has no way of getting back into your system after a crash like this. Thank you MS for making my life and millions of others a kind of Hell on Earth.

Also can someone please tell me what files to keep as I am going to have to wipe this  drive out and will restore to 12\24\07 but need to keep the files to update and where the heck to put them as this is new territory for me. I can tear these things down and rebuild computers practically in my sleep but this is somethig that is, unfortunately something I know little about or for that matter done. To top it off I am legally blind so do not want to overlook anything if at all possible.
Example I have backups of most emails and firefox because I have Mozbackup and Febe extension in Firefox but it is the stuff after that back up I need to find. As well I want to transfer anything else I should before wiping out the drive and doing the backup restore to get back to a reasonable place.

I want to thank you guys for all you have done and also to say that I am really glad I am paying the monthly fee. It has been well worth the money.
Now let's get this done! Just kidding but I would appreciate any help as soon as can be so I can get back up and have what I need to make the transition .

Thanks again and than you to the forum.  Brains! I need Brains! Not Zombie brains. What, you think this id dawn of the dead and I'm the evil brain eating person? Maybe I am. I'd suggest you do as I say or I could maybe................ yum....Eat your brains! No really. Actually I hate brains as food.  I'm more of a Deli guy.

Enough foolishness. Thank you
Stan

I am able to get to the D: drive in Unbutu. and have copied a lot of backup materials however my main concern is bringing the drive back so Windows can see it. It's strange that I can see it in DOS, and Unbutu but not Windows. I know it is that windows requires something from the drive that is not being seen by the operating system but I fall short in knowing or discovering to this point whatever "it" is. I will of course continue looking as well and if i do figure it out will let you what it is and what may have caused iy.My question then is there a way to do this in the "Recovery Console" ( which by the way was left intact after the install over the existing Windows that was corrupt.

Why I want so badly to do this is because I can probably use my backups from 12\24\07 to have the drive at a place where I can just update my email and the like and be back up and running. But unless I can bring back the D  drive the associations, links and so on will be dead and the registry cluttered with dead links that no program will bring back.

OK that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Redmond can torture me and I'll never tell.! AHA!

If I've been unclear, which does happen more than I care to admit,  I am most humbly sorry.
I do very much appreciate your help and hope I can hear from you to get accursed and  damned machine back to the state where I can screw it up again.

Thanks people
Stan

I have asked other experts to come and look ....
I would use a disk repair manager whihc would look at the drive and give you options to recover/.repair

I'll try recovery console and try to repair the mbr but I do not hold out much hope. Microsoft makes it very difficult to fix anything if not in the Windows environment.
just as clarification as I will try as asked but why do you think  Linux, and the
recovery console can see and Windows cannot? It irks the hell out of me why this disparity exists.

I will look for a program that can do this. WD comes to mind and I should have thought of this first but I guess I was going for the easy fix. Been doing this long enough so that I sjhould know. I actually consult with a few persons and do this myself but this one has me miffed. If I do find a way I will post so perhaps this can be easier in the future.
Thank you again for your continued and patient help. You people are great regardless of paying for the service.
Stan

I may just be half asleep.... But where does the PC sit now? Bootable, non bootable etc... Quick summary please..... I just couldnt figure out where you are now, after reading this thread.....

Hello
First, I want to thank each and every one of you for your kind, thoughtful and valuable input.
I have information accumulated on the journey to my latest issues. It seems that when something like this happens that the road back can be bumpy and not a little frustrating.
I finally bit the bullet and installed over the existing install of XP Pro. Prior to this as I said I used Linux to gather and try to repair the operating system. I was and still do use Unbutu live cd v7.10 and when this mess gets cleaned out I will be dual booting the system but for now using it from the CD is working incredibly well. Anyone who has set up a dual boot system?
Back to the show.
After installing XP SP2 again I was lucky enough to lose my entire past installs information leaving a lot of programs and disk space for mostly useless information for the time being . Goes with the rest of the problems doesn't it?
After installing I hoped I would have the drive but guess that would be expecting too much from Redmond's products.  I decided that I would do my MS updates to the system to be sure things were in place. What happened amazed even me. I noticed that during the updates SP1 files were being updated. No mention of SP2. Yep, you got it. The SP2 install from the SP2 disk came up as SP1. Don't ask, I do not know what happened and I have done this ( as most anyone that uses this darned system) dozens of time for myself and many others without incident so I am as stumped as most of you perhaps are.
At this point I used a saved SP2 file I kept in case I had to use with other machines that were without it. The other weird thing was that I had no connection to the NET. This was getting interesting. I also went to ASUS and got latest drivers for the board.  Prior to that I still had no drive and no Net. After I installed the Nforce drivers as you would glean I got it all back. I was amazed, dazed and confused but because the Nforce drivers contained the chip set drivers that for some reason MS did not see fit to install as it did the last install.
Why the SP2 install went so wrong I will have to investigate later  Whatever the reason it screwed up just about every faze of my computer. My third drive had about forty bad  fragments, lost programs and took two chkdsks to correct them all. Understand, previous to this crash the system was stable and up to speed. Just a pleasure. Because someone used it when I was out I got a virus that I got rid of but of course it caused the system to be unstable, thus the restore point that started this debacle. I found out about this yesterday when the person owned up to it saying he was the one that got the virus.
I restored the system yesterday from the Acronis Secure Zone. I have done this many times for myself and others using Acronis True Image 11 from backups. Well my luck has followed me once again. I now have a corrupt or missing hal32.dll. I cannot believe the things this crash did.
So now I am off to fix this, I hope. I can't but help feeling that this experience should have been another road to enlightenment  I said should because actually I learned not too much accepting the fact that I could not have gotten to this point without your expert help. I have said it before  but it nee3ds saying again.
Thank you. If I can ever help anyone else I would be glad to do so. I am not without the ability to investigate and solve issues with the beasts that roam the computers we us. I hope in the future I can return the favor.
I will leave this open until I resolve this whole issue but will try my best to leave the points so richly deserved. How do I do this when there are many good answers. I have not done this to this extent so have little idea of how to go about doing this other than picking  name at random and that does not sem fair. Can someone help enlighten me of this issue?
I'm just so greatful of bein g able to use my wife's notebook
Stan