[JimInOz]

HI,
I'm a newbie here & really like the information given by the experts.
The step-by-step instructions are excellent for novices like myself.
Please bear with me..I'm a learner...

Recently,after running my Clamwin AV & Superantispyware,my PC ,upon restarting,would not allow me to Log On .When I press the Log On icon with my name on it,it says" Logging on...quickly followed by "Saving settings".Nothing happens & I cannot access anything beyond the Welcome window.
I know this is a common problem,& I have read a few fixes...but none seem to work for me.
I think a lot of fixes refer to System 32 , & if I'm right,this system is not applicable to my PC .( NTFS maybe??)
I can access the Repair Console ( C:Windows ) & things like CHKDSK,BOOTCFG,etc.
(CHKDSK says things look OK)

I tried a Windows repair with the original OEM disc. Problem still persists.

I have a second PC,also with W XP Home.I'm using it now,in place of my primary PC.
I have on disc: DataDiscRepair,BartPE,MAGIC ISO & RC ISO...if any of those are helpful.

I'd appreciate any help you can give in step-by-step form.
Please ask if more info is required.

Thanks
Jim

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Hello JiminOz.... Welcome to GeeksToGo,

I'm sorry to hear about your issue. We will try to help you resolve this as soon as possible.
Please understand we are all volunteers and we are not here all the time. Sometimes it may be a extended amount of time to get back to you. If it has been more then 3 days please shoot me a PM and I will try to get back to you quickly then.

1. Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD and assure that your CD-ROM drive is capable of booting the CD.
2. Once you have booted from CD, do NOT select the option that states: Press F2 to initiate the Automated System Recovery (ASR) tool.
You’re going to proceed until you see the following screen, at which point you will press the “R” key to enter the recovery console:



3. After you have selected the appropriate option from step two, you will be prompted to select a valid Windows installation (typically number “1″).
Select the installation number, and hit Enter.
If there is an administrator password for the administrator account, enter it and hit Enter (if asked for the password, and you don't know it, you're out of luck).
You will be greeted with this screen, which indicates a recovery console at the ready:



4. There are eight commands you must enter in sequence to repair any of the issues I noted in the opening of this guide.
I will introduce them here, and then show the results graphically in the next six steps.
NOTE. Make sure, you press Enter after each command. Make sure, all commands are exact, including "spaces".
These commands are as follows:

CD..
ATTRIB -H C:\\boot.ini
ATTRIB -S C:\\boot.ini
ATRIB -R C:\\boot.ini
del boot.ini
BOOTCFG /Rebuild

Note about the above command.
BOOTCFG /REBUILD command which searches for pre-existing installations of Windows XP and rebuilds sundry essential components of the Windows operating system, recompiles the BOOT.INI file and corrects a litany of common Windows errors.
It is very important that you do one or both of the following two things:
A.) Every Windows XP owner must use /FASTDETECT as OS Load Option when the rebuild process is finalizing.
B.) If you are the owner of a CPU featuring Intel’s XD or AMD’s NX buffer overflow protection, you must also use /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN as an OS Load Option.
For the Enter Load Identifier portion of this command, you should enter the name of the operating system you have installed.
If, for example, you are using Windows XP Home, you could type Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition for the identifier (it's not crucial, however what the name is, as long, as it's meaningful).
Here is your computer screen:



5. Following command verifies the integrity of the hard drive containing the Windows XP installation. While this step is not an essential function in our process, it’s still good to be sure that the drive is physically capable of running windows, in that it contains no bad sectors or other corruptions that might be the culprit:

CHKDSK /R

6. This last command writes a new boot sector to the hard drive and cleans up all the loose ends we created by rebuilding the BOOT.INI file and the system files. When the Windows Recovery Console asks you if you are Sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition C: ? just hit “Y”, then Enter to confirm your decision:

FIXBOOT

7. It’s time to reboot your PC by typing
EXIT
and pressing Enter.

With any luck, your PC will boot successfully into Windows XP as if your various DLL, Hive, EXE and NTLDR errors never existed.

[rshaffer61]

Hello JiminOz.... Welcome to GeeksToGo,

I'm sorry to hear about your issue. We will try to help you resolve this as soon as possible.
Please understand we are all volunteers and we are not here all the time. Sometimes it may be a extended amount of time to get back to you. If it has been more then 3 days please shoot me a PM and I will try to get back to you quickly then.

1. Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD and assure that your CD-ROM drive is capable of booting the CD.
2. Once you have booted from CD, do NOT select the option that states: Press F2 to initiate the Automated System Recovery (ASR) tool.
You’re going to proceed until you see the following screen, at which point you will press the “R” key to enter the recovery console:



3. After you have selected the appropriate option from step two, you will be prompted to select a valid Windows installation (typically number “1″).
Select the installation number, and hit Enter.
If there is an administrator password for the administrator account, enter it and hit Enter (if asked for the password, and you don't know it, you're out of luck).
You will be greeted with this screen, which indicates a recovery console at the ready:



4. There are eight commands you must enter in sequence to repair any of the issues I noted in the opening of this guide.
I will introduce them here, and then show the results graphically in the next six steps.
NOTE. Make sure, you press Enter after each command. Make sure, all commands are exact, including "spaces".
These commands are as follows:

CD..
ATTRIB -H C:\\boot.ini
ATTRIB -S C:\\boot.ini
ATRIB -R C:\\boot.ini
del boot.ini
BOOTCFG /Rebuild

Note about the above command.
BOOTCFG /REBUILD command which searches for pre-existing installations of Windows XP and rebuilds sundry essential components of the Windows operating system, recompiles the BOOT.INI file and corrects a litany of common Windows errors.
It is very important that you do one or both of the following two things:
A.) Every Windows XP owner must use /FASTDETECT as OS Load Option when the rebuild process is finalizing.
B.) If you are the owner of a CPU featuring Intel’s XD or AMD’s NX buffer overflow protection, you must also use /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN as an OS Load Option.
For the Enter Load Identifier portion of this command, you should enter the name of the operating system you have installed.
If, for example, you are using Windows XP Home, you could type Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition for the identifier (it's not crucial, however what the name is, as long, as it's meaningful).
Here is your computer screen:



5. Following command verifies the integrity of the hard drive containing the Windows XP installation. While this step is not an essential function in our process, it’s still good to be sure that the drive is physically capable of running windows, in that it contains no bad sectors or other corruptions that might be the culprit:

CHKDSK /R

6. This last command writes a new boot sector to the hard drive and cleans up all the loose ends we created by rebuilding the BOOT.INI file and the system files. When the Windows Recovery Console asks you if you are Sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition C: ? just hit “Y”, then Enter to confirm your decision:

FIXBOOT

7. It’s time to reboot your PC by typing
EXIT
and pressing Enter.

With any luck, your PC will boot successfully into Windows XP as if your various DLL, Hive, EXE and NTLDR errors never existed.

[JimInOz]

Hi RShaffer61,
Thanks for your detailed reply.
I followed your instructions & set up everything,as I hoped.
The CHKDSK function took a long while ,but was successful.

Unfortunately,I got the same result when trying to Log On......I still cannot get past the LogOn icon.

Any other thoughts?

I get the impression that some anti-spyware programmes mistakenly cause this problem.I had just run my anti-spyware,before shutting down the PC for the last time before this problem appeared.
My PC is about a year old,& gets used 3-4 times a day.

Thanks,
Jim

[rshaffer61]

Well since you can get to the log in and then it reboots let's try a different approach.

Put your winxp cd in cd drive and reboot your system
When promted to push any key to boot to cdrom then click a key
Click R to enter recovery console

Type the following

expand d:\i386\userinit.ex_ c:\windows\system32
click enter

Once it says 1 file copied
Then type exit and click enter
System will reboot
Make sure to remove winxp cd before it boots up and let it boot fully
Windows should start normally

If not post with result

[JimInOz]

Hi RShaffer,
Thanks again for your reply.
I think I typed it in OK,but it was not recognized.
I typed it in with both C: and C:WINDOWS preceding it.

I'm unsure if this is relevant....I looked into the DISKPART section & found this:
C:Partition1 (NTFS) 152617 MB ( 144699 Free).
Unpartitioned space 8MB.

Thanks
Jim

[rshaffer61]

The command must be typed exactly as it shows
expand d:\i386\userinit.ex_ c:\windows\system32

Do you have more then one HD in your system?
Is your cdrom the D drive?
If not then change that to what your drive is lettered.

Let us know how this works.

[JimInOz]

Thanks again RShaffer.
I get this message : "The system cannot find the file or directory specified".
I have read postings where this fix has worked & others that have a similar outcome to mine.


My CDRom is D Drive & only one HD is fitted.




Regards
Jim

[rshaffer61]

Give this a try. Without knowing a little more about what caused the problem, I can't guarantee it will work...and it requires the machine you make the disk on AND the machine you are fixing are both running XP.

Please download RC.ISO and save it somewhere you can find it.
Also download MagicISO.

Start MagicISO. You should see a window informing you about the full version of MagicISO.
In the bottom right select Try It! and the program will open.
Click on File and then on Open and navigate to the RC.ISO file you downloaded. Select it, and click Open.

First, we'll need to add a clean version of userinit.exe to the current RC.ISO

* In the upper right pane, double click on the i386 folder.
* Right click in the upper right pane and select Add Files...
* Navigate to C:\Windows\System32 and select userinit.exe
* Then click Open to add userinit.exe to the CD image.
* Click File and select Save As...
* Name the file RCplus and save it somewhere you can find it.


Next, we'll need to burn the newly created image to a disk that we can use to fix the problem.

* Put a blank CD-R disk in your CD burner and close the tray. If an AutoPlay window opens, close it.
* Click on Tools and select Burn CD/DVD with ISO.... A window will appear.
* Click on the little folder to the right of CD/DVD Image File then navigate to the newly created RCplus.iso Image file and click Open.
* In the CD/DVD Writing Speed drop-down menu choose the 8X setting.
* Under Format make sure that Mode 1 is selected.
* And finally, click on the Burn it! button to burn RCplus.iso to disk.


Once the disk is burned, put it in the machine you want to fix and restart it.
Boot to the CD just as you would with a Windows XP disk.
At the Welcome to Setup screen, press R to enter the Recovery Console.
Choose the installation to be repaired by number (usually 1) and press Enter.
When you are asked for the Administrator password, enter the password or leave it blank (default) and press Enter.

At the C:\Windows> prompt, type the following commands pressing Enter after each one. Note: Watch the spaces.

D:
cd i386
copy userinit.exe c:\windows\system32
exit


After putting in the third command, you should receive the message 1 file copied which will indicate that the operation succeeded.
Now take out the CD and reboot your computer to normal mode. Try to log in and it should let you back in.

Thanks to wannabe1

[JimInOz]

Thanks again RShaffer,
I got part way thru your fix & realised I ran out of CDR discs.
I'll be away until Monday & will let you know how it turns out.
Your advice is excellent & I'm learning a lot as I go.
Regards
Jim

[rshaffer61]

Thank you for the kind words as it makes what what do here worth it all.
Also I wanted to thank you for the update and let you know we are here till the end no matter what that may be.
I don't give up easily and can always ask for another tech to join us.

[JimInOz]

Hello again RShaffer,
I gave up on the PC for awhile,but I'm enthused again.

I tried the ISO fix you suggested.
I can't seem to locate userinit.exe on my damaged PC.
Is it possible that this is missing?
I looked at many postings & fixes in regard to this problem...I just cannot seem to access userinit.exe & keep getting messages like
"The system cannot find the file or directory specified".

Any more thoughts? Thanks for your help thus far.
Jim

[rshaffer61]

Try repairing usernit with the following steps.

Put your winxp cd in cd drive and reboot your system
When promted to push any key to boot to cdrom then click a key
Click R to enter recovery console

Type the following

expand d:\i386\userinit.ex_ c:\windows\system32
click enter

Once it says 1 file copied
Then type exit and click enter
System will reboot
Make sure to remove winxp cd before it boots up and let it boot fully
Windows should start normally

If not post with result

[JimInOz]

Hi,
I typed as instructed & got the "cannot find the file or directory specified" message.
Any ideas?

Thanks
Jim

[rshaffer61]

When you boot up is the system saying to push any key to boot to cdrom?
If not then it's not using the cdrom

[JimInOz]

Hi RShaffer,
Well,I wasn't sure I was doing things properly at this end,so I found a site called Thinking In Pixels. The guy there has a great step-by-step cure,requiring the downloading of a VISTA fix & SAVE ME programme.
This worked a treat for my PC & got me back into my "lost" files & programmes.
As I'm still on Dial Up,it took me 19 hours to download both programmes...but was well worth the effort.I'm sure most people could do this in minutes,but where I live,Dial Up is my most reliable service.

Anyway,I would like to thank you again for your patience & advice.
I'll keep a regular watch on this site,as I have enjoyed the topics being discussed.

Regards
Jim