in both normal and safe mode system boots to desktop without any icons or task bar. after OK to error message (see topic title) system hangs. ctrl-shift-esc and ctrl-alt-del have no effect.
I used an earlier copy of the disk to boot up and looked at the problem disk as a data disk. virus scan (symantec) ok, chkdsk fine and I defragmented it for good measure.
I would really like to get this later version of the operating system back up as I'm missing backup on some important stuff.
How can I get beyond this point so I can get info regarding what's going on? In preparation, I've read over the suggested links and downloaded several tools to a USB drive.
Many thanks
JAB