I'm currently working with someone from MB but hoped for some advice. After sending some logs and running hijack this, I was told to install and run combo fix. After running combo fix I got the following error on reboot. <snip> Stop:c0000218 {registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \systemroot\system32\config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate It is corrupt, absent, or not writable Beginning dump of physical memory Physical memory dump complete Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance. <endsnip> it would not fully load XP in safe mode OR in the last known configuration (it always went back to the above error). With some help I was able to go into the MSFT Recovery Console, copy "software" from the repair directory and write it overtop of the "software" file in the config file (after making a software.bak). The PC boots up fully now but I get dll errors. Access to all my software is gone. Is it game over and I need to begin reinstalling all my software? If I do that, will it overwrite my data files (office docs and, more critically, my outlook email contents). Any advice help is appreciated.