I screwed up my kid sisters laptop (XP home)

[turbo24]

Ohmigosh. I so screwed up tonight. I was trying to get rid of some nasty dll files that my sisters pc had been infected with..and they just would not go away...
I got frustrated and went into the registry and started deleting any reference to these dll files.....and am now in deep trouble.
I restarted windows (xp home version) and attempted to log in. Got an error that the system could not log me in because the domain "sallyslaptop" is not available.
I tried booting into safemode, tried (unsuccessfully) to access the setup/bios (not that getting there would have helped me i don't think..) and just cannot get back into any kind of windows environment.

HELP!!! she has huge projects due at school and all her data is there!! If i can just get to her documents and save those, then I will be happy. If i have to reload windows an dstuff, fine...just as long as i can retain her documents!!! Is there any way???

I am desperate for some help here!!!

(and YES I know how sensitive the registry is and that i should not have messed with it. And YES I know that we are totally dumb for not backing up anything before i began messing with it...but, hey, hindsight and all that...)
Can you help me anyways???

[Panama Red]

Best way at this point is pull the hard drive and use an adapter to slave it to a desktop machine. Browse to her My Doc's and My Fav's files and save everything. Don't forget to check the Desktop too. Some folks like to store complete files/folders there too. Here's an adapter if you're interested.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=2020&cpc=SCH

[glc]

What brand and model is the laptop and what do you have for reinstallation media?

[Dia]

[quote]tried (unsuccessfully) to access the setup/bios (not that getting there would have helped me i don't think..){/quote]

One thing i find particularly odd here is that he cant access bios...I mean yes you probably definately destroyed the OS by messing with the registery and data link library files. But the bios is firmware on the motherboard and has nothing to do with the OS.

So what else did you do to the machine?

[turbo24]

panama -
I can slave it and that would mean that i would not need windows to access what was on it?? I never thought of that!! Its a great idea! I went out and bought windows again this morning...was going to do a repair, but i think i will take off her important stuff, and then just do a full format/reinstallation of windows, (She is always infected with viruses...) As long as i have the full version cd, i can just start from scratch.

[amdalex]

Do you have any ant-virus software on that computer? I have not had a serious virus yet, using Avast free anti-virus.

[rjfvillarosa]

An adapter like this should do the trick.
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/S...roductID=13779
This one is a little expensive, RadioShack sell them as well, just make sure it will accommodate the 2.5" harddrive found in a laptop.
Most laptops have some kind of recovery system, can you tell us what make and model of laptop it is?

[turbo24]

sorry this took so long to come back and give an update...but her laptop is good as new now.
I went and bought an adapter, removed her hard drive and connected it to the adapter, then using an external drive we have, I moved all her documents and essential files over from her hard drive to the external drive.
Put hard drive back in, then set up the bios to boot from cd drive and used her Toshiba recovery cd to reinstall windows.
Then i got to return that retail version i had purchased. (YEA!)
$16 for an adaptor sure beat $200 for a new XP cd!!
just thought i would let you know how it all worked out....

[Panama Red]

Thanx for the update Turbo. Glad it worked out for ya. I bet yer sister still rolls her eyes when the topic of latptops come up.