My windows folder systen32 had dissapeared but the pc ran well.I used attrib -a -h -r -s c:\windows\sytem32, to get it back which worked , now my pc has slowed to a crawl! Help please!!

Some programmes will not run at all,the larger the programme the longer it takes to start[if at all].System restore will not work.

Can I repair windows without loosing my files and settings,if so how?

Any help would be good,
Thanks.

See my reply to the SFC / RPC Error thread, re doing a repair reinstallation of Windows.

Thanks very much for that. I am trying to avoid reinstalling windows if possible,it will be the last resort. Seems that everything does work,but it takes ages to load.It's like something is causeing the pc to slow right up,as if there are to many programmes running at once.I still get the black screen when it boots saying windows can't run properly due to a software or hardware change.
Any ideas please.

You could go to Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->System Information->Software Environment->Startup Programs, and see if there are any suspicious programs running which ought not to be there. While you're there, you could have a look at the opening screen to see how much RAM Windows thinks you have got.

Or you could go to the command line, and run sfc /scannow to see if it can fix any system files which have been changed.

Have you run an anti-virus scan?

But if you have been infected by a virus, and it has done it's job (if you will pardon the expression) properly, to reinstall the operating system may be the only fix.

Thanks for replying so quick !
I have run a full system scan nothing found.I ran the sfc /scannow but it didn't find any problem.

As far as I can tell the programes in the start up file are ok.
This is really frustrating,some things work fine others not.
All of this started when I typed attrib -a -h -r -s c:\windows\system32 into the command prompt to make the system32 folder visible.
No way to reverse it I guess.

I think I will try to repair XP from the disk as you suggest in another thread. Will I loose settings, data etc?
Thanks again for your help,it really does make a difference!

No reason why you should lose data, provided you press the r key rather than esc key at the appropriate place (see my original posting).

If that is really all that is wrong (I would have my doubts), the system32 folder on my computer would appear to suggest that it is only the read only flag which needs resetting: attrib +r C:\windows\system32

Thanks again.
I tried resetting the read only flag,it didn't work.I took the plunge and went to repair windows and got this message,

Setup cannot continue because the version of Windows on your computer is newer than the version on the CD.

Warning: If you decide to delete the newer version of Windows that is currently installed on your computer, the files and settings cannot be recovered.

I wonder if this is caused by SP2? Now I really am out of options! I still don't understand why this problem only effects certain programes. Word 2003 works fine,but Adobe photoshop doesn't,my pictures folder is slow to load,and when I launch My Computer it takes ages to load.

All games and internet are fine,I am bafflled.How can restoring that folder cause all this trouble.

Thanks again for any help you can give.

Pack

If you have got the installation CD's for your apps, your only other option is to back up all your data to CD's, preferably CD-R, because I don't trust those CD-RW's, and the reinstall the operating system regardless. I suppose your data will primarily be located in your My Documents folder and its sub-folders, although you may want to give thought to whether you have got any anywhere else. Your emails will be located in some obscure folder, but if you use Outlook Express, their extension will be .dbx, so you can do a search for them.

Another option, if you have got, or can buy, a program like Partition Magic or Disk Director, is to partition your hard disk, and install the operating system onto the new partition.

That's all the options I can think of I'm afraid.

Wow that was a quick reply,thanks.

A couple of months ago I fitted a new hardrive to my pc. It is 250gb,I was wondering if I could somehow reinstall windows onto that drive,move everthing I can across and then delete the old windows. At the very least I can use it to back up as much as possible.I have a DVD rewriter, I will also back up to that.

Is that possible or would it make it worse?
Thanks,
Pack.

You have probably already tried it, but it occurs to me that a badly fragmented hard disk would slow things down quite a bit. Other than that:

If you have got two hard drives you can obviously install Windows onto whichever you like. Possibly you would need to change the BIOS settings so that Windows looks for a boot record on the slave rather than master. Or else change the jumpers on the back of the drives, so that the slave becomes the master, and the master becomes the slave. I would have my doubts whether simply copying the operating system files across would work; probably you would have to install from the CD, and similarly for your apps. You could then copy your data files across, or leave them where they are. Your apps wouldn't care where they were located; you would just have to tell them to look in a different place.


As it happens I have got two hard disks installed, and use a program to regularly and automatically make a backup of one onto another the other. (Not of much immediate use to you obviously, but it is a suggestion for the future.)