Another vote for BartPE. In case you don't know what it is (I didn't used to, either, or maybe you already do): BartPE is a lightened version of Windows that is bootable directly from a CD - it doesn't touch the hard drive, unless you want it to. It's useful for retrieving files from an un-bootable hard disk, since it doesn't boot off the hard disk, you can do whatever you need to it, like copy files to a USB drive or something like that. It can also fix the registry if necessary. You can find the creator at http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/. Download it and install it (to another computer of course). Then, create a PE disk. Boot the bad computer off the disk, and voila! You'll need Windows installation files, either from an install CD or an i386 folder on your computer. Installed files in C:/WINDOWS won't work. I'd use a server 2003 disk if you can, though XP works just fine, too. The OS being used for the disk doesn't have to be the same as the one on the offending computer. Also, before making your disk, you might want to replace the default wallpaper for the disk with the cooler one I made. Welcome to MSFN, by the way.