Hmm...

[AMD_User]

Alright, this is quite odd... I have absolutely no idea what I was doing. Alright, I uninstalled Service Pack 2 from my WinXP Home computer, and I typed in "c:\windows\i386\winnt32" I ran it put in my validation code, let it run, windows restarted, I then selected, "Windows XP Install" it ran, I pressed "R" for the repair, it then took me to a command prompt, asked me something about which windows I want to repair, I pressed "1" then it asked me for my administrator password, I put it in, and presses "enter." That's as far as I got, after that I have no idea what to do, any help?

[GaryRouth]

Well, my first guess is that perhaps you're playing a joke on us?

If not, my next question is why you started such an odd adventure? If you have data on that drive you want to keep - back it up while you can (putting your hard drive in an external USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure is the easiest - then copy over the files you wish to keep from another XP computer).

You've started a repair install using several of the not recommended procedures - so it's possible that some of your data will have been overwritten, especially data in your "Documents and Settings" folders (unfortunately, this is often our most prized data = our documents, pictures, and music). See especially the "Warning #2" section on Michael Steven's guide to repair XP installations. In my article in the "Tips & Tricks" forum, I have a link to his webpages on reinstall (they are the most detailed I've found to date). I'll repeat that link here for you http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

The short guide that I provided in Tips & Tricks can be reached with this link http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=151522

Be sure to read through the whole thread - there are several caveats with reinstalls.

If you can just start over from scratch [ie, if you have recent backups of personal data, and installation disks for all other software needing reinstallation] -- it's simplest to wipe the drive & do a clean install [you'd begin with either your Windows XP installation CD or a Recovery Disk CD - and update from there].

Best of luck
. . . Gary