HELP!

Is there a way to recover accidentally deleted System Restore Points?

Thanks...

Look in the recycle bin.

Good thought, but they are not there.

Nope haven't found any.
To be honest I wouldn't worry about it.

CurlyBen,

Normally I wouldn't care, but I reformatted last week and have been reloading and configuring day and night. Sometime during the installations, something caused my Welcome Screen to skip past Logon directly to my desktop. So my 2nd user account cannot be accessed.

I was going to use System Restore Points one at a time, to see what program or device caused me to lose my normal logon.

Seems my only option now is to reformat AGAIN and start over. YIKES!

The actual issue is more the loss of my normal logon. It's like it went to auto logon, but I checked the settings and they are correct. The weird thing is, if I put my PC to sleep (standby), then wake it up, it goes normally to the Welcome screen with the 2 user log on buttons.

It's only when I power off and restart, that it skips to the desktop.

I have researched this till my eyes are bugging out. Can't find a solution. My last hope was the System Restore Points.

Any suggestions here would be most welcome.

Any suggestions?

Have you tried this for the autologon issue: Windows XP: Auto Logon to Windows XP (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/tips/knox2.mspx)
Obviously you want to de the opposite.

Yes, I read that page too. I have gone in to the user account configurations and everything is set properly.

I acutally found someone that had a similar problem after installing a Netgear device. It apparently replaced a GINA.dll file needed for normal logon. The guy wrote a little utility that checks your registry for this code. I downloaded and ran it (very cool) and it said everything was correct. PC Hell: How to Fix RtlGina2.dll error with Windows XP Welcome Screen (http://www.pchell.com/support/rtlgina2_netgear_wg111_error.shtml)

Coincidentally, I just installed a Linksys device, but I have uninstalled it and did a registry clean. Still no change.

I have a feeling that I lost something that was on the original XP program along the way. That's why I really wanted to try System Restore.

Any other suggestions before I wipe my HD?

Thanks...

Try a scansfc (system file checker) first.
MS-DOS sfc command help (http://www.computerhope.com/sfc.htm) and ScanSFC with pictures (http://help.expedient.com/general/sfc.shtml)

You'll need your XP CD.
This will restore any altered files in your system to original default.

Unfortunately, I don't have the XP CD for this computer. It is on a recovery partition on the hard drive. All I have is the Restore CD which transfers it from the D patition to the C partition (as you know).

I do have a retail version with CD of XP for my wife's PC. Can I use that to source the missing files?

When I use scansfc, will it affect anything else I have loaded and configured since loading XP last week?

I'm not a computer expert, so I can't guarantee that I even understood all of the details involved in your questions, but I have managed to bring my computer back from some really scary situations, and one thing you said resonated with a (similar?) problem I solved last week.

Somehow, a while back, I inadvertently created an administrative account and then a separate account for daily use. However, for whatever reason, my computer stopped showing the administrative account, and all entries into Windows could only pass through my daily account. This created problems for me when my computer would require the administrative account to make important changes to my system. Last week, thanks to a mudslide of other problems with my computer, I wound up trying to enter windows through each of the options that come up when you restart your computer and pull up the options to go into safe mode. And voilà! One of these options entered me into the menu where I could choose to use the administrative account or my regular one.

Like I said, I don't know if this will work for you, but since I know how frustrating computer problems can be to solve, I figured that it was at least worth mentioning. I hope you don't have to start from scratch. Good luck!

Thanks L,

I suppose I could go into safe mode, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

I CAN actually get to my other account by putting the PC to sleep (standby), then when I wake it up, it goes to the normal Welcome screen with both accts. So I can get in from there.

The problem is the PC skipping this step at normal boot up.

I'll take a peek in safe mode at user acct settings and see if something looks off.

Will let you know if I find anything.

Thanks for your input...
MSC

Mitch, you don't have to put it to sleep to switch users. Just click on Start > Log Off, then select the other user.

JB,

Yes, this method has been working okay all along.

It is the fact that when I boot up from power off, it skips the User Acct (Welcome) screen and goes directly to my desktop.

So if my son wants to log on as Guest, he has to go to my desktop, then switch users. Not too convenient, plus I'd rather not have him rooting around in my "space".

I was just planning to look in safe mode at the User Acct settings, even though they are set correctly in normal mode.?

Thanks.

So if my son wants to log on as Guest, he has to go to my desktop, then switch users. Not too convenient, plus I'd rather not have him rooting around in my "space".Umm, unless you put a password on your account, he can root around in your "space" anytime he wants, whether you approve or not. Also, adding the password would instantly solve this problem, too. The password would be required, so the Welcome Screen would absolutely be presented.

Think about it. If you need to keep him out, this would be required anyway.

JB,

That IS a good suggestion. I had a password for many years, but since my son is off to college, he doesn't use my PC very much.

I always found it a nusiance to type in a password every time the screen saver came on.

This is not a huge issue. It just bugs me that I can't figure out what is happening.

Also, my wireless PCI card is doing funny things ever since I reformatted. I get errors and sometimes it won't connect. I have uninstalled and reinstalled 3 times now.

That said, I think I'm going to just start over with a new (faster) HD. When I first loaded XP, I had to do a Disk Check and repair to download Windows SP2. So I assume that means I have some bad spots on the disk.

Thanks for all you support along the way with this...

(I'm going to post a new question now about CCleaner. I believe it was you that originally recommended it)

Mitchsc, open your screen saver configuration window and remove the checkmark that requires a password to be typed in when the screen saver comes on. That should eliminate your frustration.

And a password can be 1 or 2 characters, easy. ZZ-enter

Hmmm, that could work for me.

JB, could give me a sanity check here. If you were me and you were having all these funky little problems since your HD format, would you just do work-arounds, or would you do a clean restore and start over.

You know, I never had any problems with my PC other than it was slowing way down. Now that I did the reformat, it's faster, but it just bugs me that the PC is acting so strange. Just to log on to get your message, I had to do a wireless remove and restore to connect. This happenes all day long, among other little things.

I am assuming that my hard drive is just wearing out, since the disk check told me I had bad sectors (I think that was the term?). Do you think it could be the HD? It's 7 years old. I was very careful when reloading and configuring everything.

Any advice for the weary?

7 years IS a respectable life span. The hard drive typically grinds away non-stop the whole time.

If it were me, I would be tweaking out the little things, IF they were little things. Wholesale deletion of components and reinstall all through the day is not necessarily little things, though.

Weary? Boy, I understand that! Computers were supposed to make things simpler, instead it's just one more complicated thing to have to learn or give away good money to someone to manage for you. Ugh.

Get a new HD. Start over. One last time. Keep the one you have and install it as drive D after you rebuild on the new drive, copy your data from it (if any), then remove it and trash it.

Once more into the fray.

JB,

Thanks for the reassurance that a new HD is worth a try.

I'm getting so annoyed with this "thing" I've actually been looking at some good deals on "Vista" machines this morning (OH NO!).

They are so fast and sexy, and have so much memory and cache... it's seductive.

So what if none of my hardware or software will work. Right?

I am replacing my Linksys wireless PCI card with a "match" to my D-Link router and going to 802.11n (using a g PCI card now with an b/g/n router).

Will post back in a week or so (or maybe a month?? ) with the outcome.

Thanks again.