Xp Log In Fails After Norton Basic Works Installed

[incircles]

Installed Norton Basic works, used their start up clean up utility and now i have no access to windows on my c: drive. The login window comes up and i login, then the computer logs out. so i have no access.

I have tried a system restore and this takes me back to the login window and then back out. I have tried to reinstall windows but i cant remember my administrator password from around 5 years ago!

I cant take Norton off fully as i cant access my it through my Windows on my C drive.

I have put windows onto another drive (temp only) but cannot access "my documents" as they are associated with the old windows. Dont care about windows, just need my files etc from my documents.

Any help appreciated.

 

[plasma dragon00]

3 things to tell you -

1) thats really weird that the norton program would do that, but i have never heard of it lol

2) to reinstall windows you dont need an administrator password. just a cd drive, your windows cd/cd key, and any other cds you could need.

3) if you copied your whole c:\ drive onto another hard drive, then you're in luck!! i can tell you where to go to find the my documents folder. it is located at:

X:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents

x is the drive letter that windows is on, although in youre case, if you put it onto a hard drive that already has windows on it, then go to wherever you put the contents of your c:\ drive. so if your working installation is on your c:\ drive, but you also made a folder called old windows for example, then it would be C:\old windows\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents

also, username is the username for the user account that you want to get files off of.

then, copy all of that stuff there into a folder of your current my documents folder for your working windows install. then, feel free to sort them all as you wish

and, the rest of the username folder and its sub folders could contain other useful data, like your desktop folder for example, if you had any files saved to that also.

if you need any other help on the matter, dont hesitate to reply back or shoot me a pm or such, because im pretty sure i can help figure this out with ya

well, good luck and hope this helped,

~plasma

 

[caravel]

1) thats really weird that the norton program would do that, but i have never heard of it lol

Unfortunately I have come across Norton/Symantec software and the unpredictable damage it can do to a windows install on numerous occasions. Even when uninstalled it often still leaves the liveupdate service and other junk installed and running as well as leaving traces of itself all over the registry and often breaks your windows install by not completely removing a driver or service, causing windows to hang on startup. Earlier versions such as 2002 and 2003 were infamous for this. This is why I advise people not to bother with it. Even if you got it "free" with a router, modem, network card or whatever just toss is straight in the bin. If it came pre-installed, then head over to add/remove programs and uninstall it ASAP. There are vastly superior alternatives out there and many of them are totally free.

Personally I'm sick of having to remove this crap from systems on a weekly basis as part of my job. Some OEM systems come with so much of this crapware pre-installed that it's often best to just reinstall clean and reactivate.

 

[JJNelson13]

When you are re-installing your OS and it prompts for the Admin Password just hit "Enter". I just had to re-install due to Norton as well.

 

[incircles]

When you are re-installing your OS and it prompts for the Admin Password just hit "Enter". I just had to re-install due to Norton as well.

Yep, did that. booted up with the windows disk and it prompted me for a password (in dos) and so i hit return and the boot up stopped. it left me with a C: prompt in dos.

 

[incircles]

3 things to tell you -

1) thats really weird that the norton program would do that, but i have never heard of it lol

2) to reinstall windows you dont need an administrator password. just a cd drive, your windows cd/cd key, and any other cds you could need.

3) if you copied your whole c:\ drive onto another hard drive, then you're in luck!! i can tell you where to go to find the my documents folder. it is located at:

X:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents

x is the drive letter that windows is on, although in youre case, if you put it onto a hard drive that already has windows on it, then go to wherever you put the contents of your c:\ drive. so if your working installation is on your c:\ drive, but you also made a folder called old windows for example, then it would be C:\old windows\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents

also, username is the username for the user account that you want to get files off of.

then, copy all of that stuff there into a folder of your current my documents folder for your working windows install. then, feel free to sort them all as you wish

and, the rest of the username folder and its sub folders could contain other useful data, like your desktop folder for example, if you had any files saved to that also.

if you need any other help on the matter, dont hesitate to reply back or shoot me a pm or such, because im pretty sure i can help figure this out with ya

well, good luck and hope this helped,

~plasma

The problem is that i cannot open, move, copy etc "my documents". it states "access denied"