Windows xp home won't start

[castlef]

when loading windows there is a black screen and system error: lsass.exe - unable to locate component

click ok and the computer just restarts. The only thing on my computer that has changed in the last few days would be that I downloaded AIM if that has to do with anything.......

[doctorgonzo]

The same thing happened to me out of nowhere. The only solution was to reinstall Windows. You may be able to use the Recovery Console and run fixboot, but if that doesn't work you don't have many options.

[castlef]

thanks for the reply... I reinstalled the OS. It's nice to have a clean install but alas, I had over 100 URL's in my favorites folders

[Markoman01027]

Hello Castlef,

lsass.exe is a system process. Installing your OS over itself would have fixed the problem and you would of still kept your data.
Glad to see everything is working fine!

[Joeberg]

Hello Castlef,
I remember having a similar problem, but i had to wipe the hdd clean and start alovr agian In the end it all worked out, Glad to see your pc was recovered
Joe

[not important]

Suggestion. Remember to back up your favorites, as well as any other important files.

[morriswindgate]

Anice imaging program like Drive Image would have made this easy, and if you keep the image up to date, virtually painless.
All you would have had to do is restore the image and in 15 minutes you would be back to where you were before the problem. I feel that this is so important that it is a required add-on when I build a computer for someone.

[doctorgonzo]

After that happened to me I learned my lesson and got Norton Ghost. A couple weeks ago I had a driver problem that screwed everything up and that time, it only took a short while to restore everything using the Ghost image. Much, much better than reinstalling everything.