oops = aw crap

L

LoctOut

Guest
I messed up a couple things in my registry, I guess. I exported the keys before I changed them and did a system restore point too, but I now I can't get past I can't get past the logon screen. Tried as administrator, user and guest. Everytime I get a message saying this version of XP requires activation, and that I can not log in until it has been activated. It asks if I want to activate now, yes, or no. I tried both option and neither one goes anywhere.

Is there a way to run system restore from dos? Or a way to edit the registry from dos, or a way to bypass the logon screen?

Or is there a way to replace the registry? I do have three .reg files on my desktop that would fix the registry problem if I could apply them from dos.

I have tried F8 and booting to last known good setup... no good.

Tried safe mode, no good.

Any thing that would get me in would be helpfull. If I can just get past the must be activated warning I can fix the rest of it.

Any Ideas?

Thanks
 
I have to add a useless comment here

So Loctout is Locked Out of his PC. Ironic.

Hope you get it sussed though.
 
hipster,

went there, did that, didn't work. Sounded promising, but no go

thanks for the try

GT...... right on dude (or dudette?)

NE 1 else with anyideas?
 
Could it be that you didn't activate XP and now your 30 days are up? If so, you could try turning the time back 30 days or so in the BIOS. Then it might work but I don' t know... I haven't actually tried that. Just a thought though.
 
Hipster....

I can get to the C: prompt...... tried c:\reg....... said is was bad command or file name.

and cruiser.....

it was activated. I was screwing with it. Made backups of the keys and made a system restore before I messed with it so I could fix it if it crashed. Thing is, it wouldn''t let me log in noway!

Tried to reinstall xp over existing xp. won't do it. I can still see all my directories and data and cruise around from the c: prompt.

I was going to try to save the most important stuff to a zip drive but can't get it to recognise a zip (neither usb or internal) Tried to dump the important stuff to another drive, . I t recognized that drive and let me make a dir on it. Then after trying to save some .doc files to it it locked up. That drive now has some strange directories on it I can't open or delete.

tried putting the original drive in another system as a slave drive, figureing I could at least get at my data. That system sees the drive, says if is working correctly, no flags on the device manager, but I can't see any data and it doesn't show up under "my computer" or explorer.

This thing is really starting to bug me.

starting to look like ole WTF time and go for the format c:

NE other suggestions?
 
all my suggestions are below...

1. can you get into safe mode?

OR

2. can you delete the registry file from your c: prompt?

OR

3. you have a backup...how bout formatting and re-applying your old registry afterward?
 
Black_Pride...

Can't get in using safe mode. Get same prompt as in normal boot

I could delete the registry from the c:\prompt. Would that force it to repair/replace/build the registry on the next boot?


when you say backup, do you mean from the system restore or of the registry?

I'm about ready to wipe this beast clean. I'm in the process of trying to recover as much of the data as I can. thank goodness I still remeber most of my dos commands and have a few dos tools to make this a little easier.

thanks
 
Also if u put the drive in another system as a slave and it doesn't show in my computer or explorer. Did the bios see it? If so then right click on my computer go to manage then click on disk management and that should list all the drives in the system. Then u can right click on the drive that is messed up and explore it via windows and get anything and just about everything u
 
yup hipster, tried about every way imaginable. Even loaded I386 to sysem using winnt.exe, took off everything look good, and started, until it asked me which option and where. Tried everything there at one try or another. Screw it. Gonna zap it blank and start clean. I DID find a way to recover all my good/important stuff (like favorites and porn, lol) and am backing it all to cd now.

will let ya'll know how it came out later.

Thanks for sticking with me. This baby had been having a few burping spells lately anyway, so was getting close to a re-do anyhow. Just wasn't fixin on doing it the soon.

PS, DON'T EVER MESS WITH THE PRODUCT ID VALUES IN THE REGISTRY!!! Not the registration key, the product ID
 
Update and end of story

Up and running. No matter what I tried, conventional and non-conventional methods provided by peeps here and a couple other boards, none of them worked.

In trying to recover data before I did the ole format c:, I stumbled upon a directory for a prog I forgot I had installed. Mostly because XP had been so stable I hadn't had a crash since I installed it around this time last year.

I ran this prog (runs from dos, or rather, the equivalent to it in XP)
and it restopred my registry, rebooted and everything was fine. All this after almost 48 hours straight of messing with this thing.

The prog I used, u may ask? EDRNT. It's a freeware prog designed originall for win2K. Search for it on google, using ERDNT or ERUNT.

I found it here
h**p://www.jsifaq.com/SUBL/tip5500/rh5501.htm

Didn't post a direct link in case this was considered a competing forum

Thanks all for your help
Loctout isn't locked out any more :D
 
ERDNT doesn't isn't actually installed... But yea, it's great. I use it all the time. My advice, anytime you set a restore point, run ERDNT too.
 
That is one hell of a good free program to keep the registry backed up. Soooooooo simple to use.
 

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