xp pro won't boot C:\WINDOWS folder is empty

My computer won't start I tried to boot in safe mode and safe mode with last
known good point. I booted the machine with knoppix and to my suprise my
C:\WINDOWS folder is empty. This is the only folder that looks like its
missing files. I was wondering if I did a repair with my xp install disk if
it would work, and if I would lose my important files like my third party
software, pictures, docs, etc.

"Jonathan" wrote:

My computer won't start I tried to boot in safe mode and safe mode with last
known good point. I booted the machine with knoppix and to my suprise my
C:\WINDOWS folder is empty. This is the only folder that looks like its
missing files. I was wondering if I did a repair with my xp install disk if
it would work, and if I would lose my important files like my third party
software, pictures, docs, etc.

If the Windows folder is gone then the system regsitry, which includes
the information about your installed applications, configuration
settings, etc. is gone with it.

Browse your machine again with Knoppix and double check to make sure
that your documents and other data files are still present. Then make
an external backup of these files to another hard drive or burn them
to a CD/DVD if you have such a drive and if your Knoppix install
includes CD/DVD burning support.

What will happen during the repair is quite variable, and it depends
on exactly what type of Windows XP CD that you have (retail, generic
OEM, "branded" OEM, "branded OEM system recovery, etc.).

You should also be very concerned about determining just exactly what
happened to the contents of your \Windows folder and why. In the
absence of this knowledge it is highly unlikely you will be able to
fix whatever it was that caused the problem, and if it is not fixed
then there is good reason to suspect that it may well happen again.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

Thank you Ron forthe reply. As far as the type of disk I have its a xp pro
upgrade boxed retail version. And I ran Acronis True Image 8.0 and I think
when I was verifying the image I inserted the disks in the wrong order and
actually started a restore, and also found out that some of the restore disks
didn't take so the image was no good. Bummer thing its the first time I tried
to make an image, And I think I didn't format the dvds with roxio correctly.
So your saying that if I do a repair that my file associations for all my
programs wont work like adobe creative suite, MS office, my games and like
software.