System Restore Error - please help!!!

[Andrea Wojtewicz]

I have Windows XP and did a system restore. It seemed to go well until the computer restarted. After picking a user, all that came up was the wallpaper on the screen, no icons and no taskbar!! I had to use control alt delete to bring up the task manager to shut down. It seems that during the restoration process some system files were deleted. Any suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Andrea

 

[Ted Zieglar]

Get rid of the viruses and spyware on your computer.

--
Ted Zieglar
"You can do it if you try."

I have Windows XP and did a system restore. It seemed to go well until the
computer restarted. After picking a user, all that came up was the wallpaper
on the screen, no icons and no taskbar!! I had to use control alt delete to
bring up the task manager to shut down. It seems that during the restoration
process some system files were deleted. Any suggestions? Any help would be
greatly appreciated!!
Andrea

 

[Andrea Wojtewicz]

Thanks, but how do I get my windows files back without restoring the entire
drive to factory settings? Can I reinstall Windows XP without losing all of
my application files, settings, documents, etc?
Andrea

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Andrea,

As long as the restore was performed in Windows, the undo option
should be available.

Restart Windows and bring up the Task Manager. Go to File - New Task
(Run...)
and type %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe then click OK.

This should bring up the System Restore wizard. Select the Undo
option.
This will at least get the system back to it's previous state.

 

[Andrea Wojtewicz]

Thank you so much!! This solution makes the most sense and seems the
easiest. I do have one concern, though, if the rstrui.exe file is missing,
do I have any other options? ( I don't need a detailed response right now
since I won't be able to try your solution for a couple of weeks, when I
have access to the computer in question, but if the file is gone and I can't
undo the restore I'll post again under this thread.)

Thanks a million,
Andrea

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Andrea,

Rstrui.exe is System Restore. If this file was missing, the last
restore would not have been possible.

Another option would be to access System Restore via Safe Mode.
You will find instructions here.
All About System Restore in WinXP
http://bertk.mvps.org/