I think I just broke my computer.

I'm running Vista Home Premium on an Acer laptop, but I'm sure not using it right now.

I was trying to delete all my index.dat files, which have been accumulating for a year, with Index.dat Suite. I'd downloaded and tried a couple others, but for whatever reason, they didn't delete a single file (I think). I couldn't get Index.dat Suite to work, either - I'd gone through the procedure twice already, rebooting each time. Then I read in the help guide that if you were having problems getting it to work, you could try setting the batch file to be added to the WinLogon Shell registry key after the file generation, instead of to the usual RunOnce key. I had something like 7 or 8 restore points from this last week, so I felt pretty comfortable making the registry change. (Famous last words, right?) I rebooted, and that's when the trouble started.

After I entered my password at logon, all I got was a black screen. I tried rebooting in Safe Mode, to do a System Restore, but found that all my restore points had apparently been erased. I tried Last Known Good Configuration. Still just the black screen. I started Explorer via Task Manager, as well as my Control Panel, Regedit, System Restore (yes, all my restore points really are gone), and the Index.dat Program - but I don't really know what else to do.

I can't import the Index.dat Suite registry backup - I get an error message saying, "Not all data was successfully written to the registry. Some keys are open by the system or other processes."

Of course, I'm just assuming that it's something to do with the Index.dat Suite that caused the problem, but I suppose it could be something else...

I have an image backup of my system on DVD, but that's from months ago. I hate to lose what I've put on my computer since then.

Can I fix this?

 

Okay, so I'm an idiot. I realized that the problem might have been that I was "managing" my startup processes earlier today, so I opened System Configuration and reset everything to its default, then rebooted.

I've got my Desktop back. My restore points really are gone - I don't know why. But I'm hoping that's the only damage.

I'll welcome any and all comments, but I wanted to post this so I wouldn't waste anyone's time.

 

Glad you got it fixed! I need to buy a copy of Vista so I can play around...

:cool

E

 

Thanks for the positive response. I'm glad too.

I'd still like to be able to safely delete my index.dat files, but I'm having a devil of a time trying to find a program that'll work for me. I suppose I'll post a new thread asking about that...