Can't Boot Windows XP - Stuck on Light blue XP Logo Screen

[biosnowman]

Greetings:

After editing my registry. i was only editing permissions. (in order to get Quicken 2007 to install- That is a different matter). After getting out of the registry editor I rebooted and get stuck on the light blue XP logo screen. the cursor works here, but nothing else. When I boot up in safe mode I get the to the exact same place. Same thing when I do last good configuration boot.

In an ideal world I would like to save some of the data that is stored on my D: drive. What would anyone suggest I do next? I am willing to lose the data I have on my computer, however, I have not backed up anything in a year.

[_sorrow_]

Bummer, even if you get everything back, it still sucks.

Okay, so i've heard about these Windows Live bootable CD's (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/), but have never used one, so i can't testify to whether or not they work -- and what kind of data recovery is available if you're using one. Do you have an external hard drive you can pull all this information off to?

Also, i was browsing PC World Magazine at the grocery store the other day, and the current issue has a pretty large list (nothing too exciting though) of freeware, etc. In the list is something about the live CD mentioned above; not sure if its the one i linked to (that was just the first google result i got), but you may want to check that. I remember the article also mentioned something about a potential to boot off of a USB drive too...

If that doesn't work, you could try hacking you're own computer via the episode 1 of "The Broken", where they talk about booting into Knoppix... i can't remember off hand what it was they said, but its a thought.

Do you have any knowledge of linux? That would be a big bonus in your favor for trying to get this data back.

You can also check this list (http://www.econsultant.com/i-want-freeware-utilities/index.html#performance) of freeware apps, which has a whole section dedicated to system recovery...

Oh, and a while back on Digg, this USB recovery thing (http://www.econsultant.com/i-want-freeware-utilities/index.html#performance) showed up... I haven't used it (or even unzipped it), but it sounded good haha :rolleyes:

Good luck, keep us posted

[hoodedrobin]

Do you have system restore on? Or try booting into safe mode (f8) first...

If not theres ways to restore your registry via a xp bootdisk (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545)... also... you could always install linux and copy the the harddrive.

[striker1211]

Greetings:

After editing my registry. i was only editing permissions. (in order to get Quicken 2007 to install- That is a different matter). After getting out of the registry editor I rebooted and get stuck on the light blue XP logo screen. the cursor works here, but nothing else. When I boot up in safe mode I get the to the exact same place. Same thing when I do last good configuration boot.

In an ideal world I would like to save some of the data that is stored on my D: drive. What would anyone suggest I do next? I am willing to lose the data I have on my computer, however, I have not backed up anything in a year.

No, thats not a different issue at all, it is the issue that caused this error lol. What keys were you modifying the permissions of? You probably corrupted good ol' GINA

[biosnowman]

The quicken install was complaining about some registry that I did not have permissions to as admin. Thus I backed up the registry as it was and started editing the permissions of registry in the host software section. I don't remember what section I edited permissions for. The change I made was to give permission to all for these sections.

If I could execute the backupreg.reg I created that might get me back. Any ideas about how to execute this backup registry?

[striker1211]

If you used export>all you cannot use it to restore the registry. It does not contain the permission settings. If its as simple as a dword value missing somewhere then it should work, but i dont know what app would import it for you. Gooogle import .reg file boot disk.