system restore from recovery in xp

Hello,
I was running a program called slimdrivers on my xp machine (have run it on the vista pc with no problems).
However, after it updated one of the drivers and restarted the pc I was able to login with my password but then everything froze and I could not get the mouse or keyboard to work at all. So I finally shut down the pc - waited about a minute and restarted the pc going into the safe mode options and selected the last known good configuration. Well, it restarted but this time it froze up at the login screen but I could not move the mouse to select the user and I could not do anything with the keyboard either. I again had to finally shut down the pc.

I installed the disc and started the recovery console and am now doing a chkdsk /r on the pc. If after this I cannot get the pc to work properly is there a way to access the system restore from the recovery console and get to one of the restore points (made one before installing the slimdrivers software as well as before downloading and installing the updated drivers) so that I can get the pc back to where it was before this whole mess?

I did find a few sites that state that you can but wanted to check here before doing anything since the information I have gotten here has never steered me wrong.

Thanks so Very Much

 

Have you tried safe mode? That would be the easiest since it doesn't load drivers. If that works you could get to system restore from there.

 

I already tried that. After restarting the pc - hitting the f8 key as it was starting up and selecting the last known good configuration and not being able to login at all I finally shut down the pc at the tower; waited and then restarted and hit the f8 key again to restart in safe mode options. Selected the safe mode option and was hoping to access the system restore from there but for whatever reason it froze up at mup.sys and got nothing else. Again, after about 5 minutes finally shut down pc at the tower - waited and then restarted pc and it froze at the login screen (and using the mouse or keyboard did nothing) which is why I went to the recovery console and am now doing a chkdsk /r (which is now at 67% complete).

My keyboard and mouse are connected via usb ports (in case this makes a difference and the keyboard arrow keys were working when I initially selected the last known good configuration as well as selecting safe mode the second time and it is working now with the recovery disc running). The update was a usb driver so I am guessing it has something to do with that.

I did find an old keyboard and mouse that I could use that do not connect to the tower via usb if need be.

Once the chkdsk /r is done I will try restarting the pc and see what happens but if no luck I was wondering if I should follow the steps at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545 for recovering from a corrupt registry that prevents windows xp from starting or if there is something else to try first.

Any suggestions would be so very much appreciated.

 

I would try everything before going through those steps because they are confusing and don't have a great success rate.

Definitely use the old keyboard and mouse as that eliminates the USB ports as causing problems.

If it doesn't start after chkdsk then attempt safe mode with command prompt. You could get to system restore from there using this command: %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449

 

Oh, make sure you change the keyboard and mouse with the computer off. It has to be rebooted to recognize the change or they won't work.

 

Okay, chkdsk /r was done so I exited the program - plugged in the old keyboard and mouse and tried to start pc but the mouse still would not move so that I could login. Restarted again and hit f8 to get to safe mode. It did seem to freeze at the drivers\mup.sys again but after awhile it did go into safe mode (in fact while starting to type this.
I am now in safe mode and will try a system restore now and post again once that is done.
Be back in just a few.

 

system restore is running right now. (forgot how much I hated this mouse!) after it is done running hopefully I will be able to use the pc again.
Did notice that system restore only had the restore points that I have been making since I installed the new psu the other day. I thought that system restore automatically created a point each day (but then again it has been years since I have actually used system restore).

I had already started the system restore by hitting the f8 key and just selecting to start the pc in safe mode (before seeing your post about starting in safe mode with command prompt - should I have done that instead?) Thats what I get for not waiting to hear back from you first!

Anyway the pc has started up again and I was able to sign in now - still using the old keyboard and mouse instead of the usb keyboard and mouse (which actually came with the pc anyway).

The system restore screen just came up and stated that the computer has been successfully restored to the restore point I selected (before installing the slimdrivers program)

Everything seems to be okay - I was going to now make a new restore point and shut down and then plug in my usb keyboard and mouse. Is that a good idea?

I'm waiting this time till I hear back from you.

 

You're fine going back to the USB keyboard and mouse.

Any way that you got system restore to work is great! There shouldn't be anything to worry about now.

 

Thanks for all the help. It is greatly appreciated. I did plug in the usb keyboard and mouse and all is working fine.

Doing a Windows XP backup using the backup utility right now (did a seagate disc wizard backup - software that was installed on the seagate external hard drive) before this whole mess started.

Now to figure out what the problem is with a friends Dell Machine.
May be back to look for help on that.

Again, Thanks so Very Much

 

There is a way to "Roll Back Driver" by going to
Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager tab

Then right click on the device and select Properties, then the Driver tab.
There is a button labeled "Roll Back Driver".

You need to know which device/controller to change??

 

Thanks for all the assistance. I now have that pc up and running as it should be. Using an old keyboard and mouse that are not connected via a usb port got my pc working again and doing the system restore to before I installed the softdrivers program has resolved that problem so no need to roll back the drivers. Although if I had remembered about that I would have tried that first.

Again, Thanks for Everything!