Startup user accounts

I received a used a used Compaq laptop and I removed the user account that was installed and added a new account when I rebooted ALL the user accounts were missing and I cannot start windows XP. How do I restart and add a user account or an administrator account.

 

If its XP Home, log in via Safe Mode, where the admin account that is built in, can be used. Then go back and check your account setup in the user accounts applet in Control Panel.

 

When I start in safe mode I can access the administrator account but I cannot change the user name and when I restart the administrator account doesn’t show the only one I get to show is the guest account. I tried to add another account and it only lets me select the administrator account and says this already exists. Will system restore work for this problem?confused