Windows XP Screwed. Please Help.

[MetalheadGautham]

I am dual booting Windows XP and Ubuntu Feisty via GRUB.

My version code(displayed under safe mode desktop screen)

Microsoft (R) Windows XP (R) (Build 2600.xpsp.051011-1528: Service Pack 2)

I have the following troubles:

1. Yesterday, I shut down my computer in my main Gautham user, which is an administrator type account. It has been severely screwed before, and was the first account the assembler of my PC created back in 2005, and it was then called "aa". In my pre-geek days, all of us in the house used the same account, and it was overloaded with junk. Once I saw light, I renamed it to Gautham, assigned a password to it, and created another account called aa. But windows is too stupid to understand this, and in its folders, even after renaming, the account is still aa, for example, its C://documents and settings/aa instead of ~/gautham, and the other user is now aa_02. but I have no complaints against this stupidity of windows. My problem is quite different...

2. After shutting it down, my sis logged in through the aa account thats displayed in the login screen. But it hanged for ever after the Loading Your Personal Settings... message was displayed. The same happened again, but later, it was able to start, but it looked like the taskbar soon became unresponsive and I had to restart again. After more tries, it worked, and I shut down normally to see if it works now. Then I logged into my user, and it never worked. It still hanged in the Loading your personal settings... message. I have tried several things now. But then, the aa account worked. But the Gautham account was still not working. I tried booting in safe mode, restoring the system to a prev state, etc etc. Then I created a new account, named Gautham T, which was again admin. It came Loading your personal settings..., then Applying personal settings..., then it hanged again. But logging in in safe mode helped me log in into that user.


3. Now two users are screwed, both admins. I am concidering reinstalling windows, as my windows directories and ntfs partitions are still accessable through linux, and I can recover their files. But the dammed user account has tooooooo many personalisations and there are too many customisations I can't possibly ever do again. So I need this to be fixed.

4. This is a lesser problem: the taskbar is too unresponsive sometimes, when I try to click on a window to minimise it. I need to sometimes click 3-4 times.

[Gigacore]

insert ur original xp cd (if u have) or bootable and select the repair option in the installation. Not the recovery console.

[ray|raven]

^Might not work, had a similar problem once,with an unresponsive login screen and taskbar.

Deleted the user account from safe mode and created a new one.

End Of Story.

[MetalheadGautham]

Originally Posted by Gigacore

insert ur original xp cd (if u have) or bootable and select the repair option in the installation. Not the recovery console.

but the problem is that I don't know the problem.
safe mode works fine, and I am currently using it.
the limited user account also works fine.
WTH can I do ?
and what does repair do ?


are there any config files in the system which I can attach for examination ?

Originally Posted by rayraven

^Might not work, had a similar problem once,with an unresponsive login screen and taskbar.

Deleted the user account from safe mode and created a new one.

End Of Story.

too much customisations in the account to be deleted.

[Gigacore]

The repair option will replace all the corrupted system files with the new one's

[MetalheadGautham]

well... I am thinking of retrying (for the 20th time) shutting down and using the new user...

and does anyone know what is this process SkyTel doing in my startup ?

[ray|raven]

^Skytel.exe is the Realtek Voice Manager,so unless you got Realtek audio, thats a virus.

And repair wont work, as its not a system file problem.
If you can login through safe mode, try system restore to a previous date.

[MetalheadGautham]

^^I do have realtek.

and I already tried safe mode to 4th march, created just before installing FlyKiteOSX theme.

Infact, I am using it right now. Still no effect.

bump !
shifted to linux.
windows wasn't that pleasing anyway...

but a solution is still welcome.
even that new user I created is not working. It too lags in the Loading Your Personal Settings... dialogue.

[drgrudge]

FlyKiteOSX theme sucks. Many have reported problems

[ray|raven]

^All system transformation packs are like that, they hack system files to do stuff.
People use em , and end up blaming windows for their problems.

[sarincv]

yeah.....I had somewhat similar problem with some other theme......Never use any 3rd part themes......

[ray|raven]

^Using visual styles is not the problem, changing system files is.

IMO, its better to use software such as IconPackager to change icons, rather than hack system files.

[MetalheadGautham]

I completely removed flykiteosx, and restored the system to pre install state of flykiteosx. So I should technically expect no problems at all right ? And why are only administrator user types affected ?

[MetalheadGautham]

bump

[Gigacore]

^ coz u hate windows a lot.

I told u not to hate any OS.

[MetalheadGautham]

Originally Posted by Gigacore

^ coz u hate windows a lot.

I told u not to hate any OS.

I don't hate windows. I just find it a bit too restrictive.

and Now, after a few hours, I am going to try creating another limited user account in windows and see if I can login through it. If it works, I will have to (almost forever) use safe mode for admin activities.

[imageek]

Hi,
u can also log in to the default administrator account,

press ctrl(once)+alt(once)+delete(twice)

the logon interface will change

you can enter as "Administrator" the default admin account

and check for the probable bugs.....

[MetalheadGautham]

Updates:

1. I was away from the net for a month thanks to my dad shifting the comp to another room without net and now making my tired and lazy body single handedly shift it back.

2. I made several new observations:

3. Safe mode works just fine

4. No user ecept a particular limited user named "aa" is usable over normal mode

5. Safemode works fine for the default admin account and my "Gautham" account.

6. I am concidering reinstalling for the good.

7. But I also have my ubuntu reinstall (hardy) comming up, and hence I need to install hardy over feisty. I don't know how to handle this set of events.

[Faun]

a day wasted

[MetalheadGautham]

Originally Posted by T159

a day wasted

which day ?

[ax3]

renaming acc names have many problems .... i had it 2 ....

just create a new acc & import ur setting .....

[MetalheadGautham]

Update:

Now that Windows XP SP3 is out and I have successfully downloaded it, I am going to reinstall windows and install SP3 from its CD.

Can someone please tell me the correct procedure to install windows XP, and how I can ensure that my settings of programs from previous install can be preserved ?

Can someone please give me a list of places to backup ?

How long will a windows install take if I am going to be using a FAT32 C Drive, with a 2.66GHz Intel Pentium 4 Northwood Processor, onboard audio and video from intel D915GLVG mobo, with 256 mb of 400 MHz DDR RAM ?

Do I need to remove grub for that ? I already have an existing ubuntu installation. I am planning to reinstall that too(Hardy).