Thanks for your response, but it has gotten me in a peck of trouble.
Even though the symptoms listed were not exactly the same as mine, I altered
the registry as suggested.
The problem is that there are multiple instances of 10318 keys and Upper and
LowerFilters, and I deleted them all, including those for keyboard and mouse.
Now I cannot access my system at all.
You mean you "changed" the registry without *backing up the file*?
Yes, it was stupid.
How can I recover from this? My system won't come up in Safe Mode, and I
can't get to Restore. To compound my problem, I don't have a recovery disk
and can't find my XP disc.
I can order another, but will the CD drive read it?
Sure this is OS independent. You could also stick in a "Linux rescue
CD" and use a usb-drive or another HDD in the System to *BACK UP
your valuable Data just to be on the *safe* side.
If I had a vfat USB-HDD big enough to hold c:\
Use a System rescue CD.
After the bootpocess finishes it will give some sort of shell.
On the one I have in mind it gives a few instruction among
them one on how to load the driver for the XP file-system.
After that is done,
create a folder
"mkdir /win-os"
"mount -t auto /dev/hda1 /win-os"
(assuming window is on the first HDD)
plug in a usb-drive, and create also a folder for it
"mkdir /usb-drive"
"mount -t auto /dev/sdc1 /usb-drive"
(usb-drives are seen as SCSI so that's why its not /dev/hdb1)
copy the whole system to the usb-drive
"cp -a /win-os /usb-drive"
This process will not create a bootable OS you can use, BUT IT can
help you to salvage the Data on the Disc if you're not able to
rescue the installed OS.
Hopefully a "restore" with MS tools will solve the problem though.
Dragomir Kollaric