after restore, registry messed up-lost explorer, IE & more

[gsiamrod]

I really need help. AUD screwed up & could not get to work. So, I did a restore to date before AUD screwed up. 1st time, no files changed due to "unexpected error". Did again in safe mode and now, I have no windows explorer, no IE, & others probably, since I cannot access programs due to wexplorer not working. (IE now has a text icon). Have done three restores, one in safe mode. Safe mode finished, creating these problems. Restore not in safe mode made no changes  due to "unexpected error". Now, when I try to go to IE, get the red X" C:\Program files\Internet Explorer\iexplorer.exe is not valid Win 32 application".  For wexplorer, get Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:   BEX
  Application Name:   Explorer.exe
  Application Version:   6.0.6002.18005
  Application Timestamp:   49e01da5
  Fault Module Name:   ntdll.dll
  Fault Module Version:   6.0.6002.18541
  Fault Module Timestamp:   4ec3e3d5
  Exception Offset:   00009ae2
  Exception Code:   c0000409
  Exception Data:   00000000
  OS Version:   6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
  Locale ID:   1033
  Additional Information 1:   8426
  Additional Information 2:   6b2e736a5cffc5511c0dba794e28ed90
  Additional Information 3:   198d
  Additional Information 4:   1f9dfc04f6f547aa13bdb04c84af6c15
I have Torch to get me here, but I need help big time. I am running Vista Premium Home ed. 32bit
SP2 Presario desktop.I have run the recovery only to check for start up problem. Afraid to go any further with recovery. It takes over 3 hours to do a restore, but I think maybe restore to latest point? Am afraid of restore now since this mess up! Wouldn't think it would mess up in safe mode?
Been working on this now over 12 hrs. straight. Any help is appreciated.Thanks, Rod

[Shane]

AUD?

First thing I would do is check the drive for any bad sectors. If you can open a cmd.exe window run
chkdsk c: /f /r

It will say the drive is in use would you like to have it do it at bootup, hit yes and reboot. It will take a while to check all the sectors, let me know how it goes.

Shane

[gsiamrod]

Shane, thanks for reply. I had this "thing" completely go down. I did a system restore 4 times and each time this "thing" got worse.I"ll never do another system restore. It lost files and folders, DEP got involved, everything including Wexplorer quit. Funny thing, I could open your fix but when I tried to run it, it went crazy, giving different screens and going crazy with registry screens. I'll never do another restore.  So, I did a backup and then a recovery. I spent an ungodly amount of hours on this thing. I could not get back here (Torch quit), so I could not do as you suggested. It is working now, but I have some issues. The main problem I am facing is I seem to have lost  many programs, pictures etc. I know they are here because I watched installation and saw many of them being put in. I believe I know why they are not showing up. Maybe you could help me retreive them. First, I bought this "thing" from my brother. He had login set as user Thomas. When I got machine, I set myself up as administrator. What I did not know was each time I installed or other applications, all were going in as User/Thomas. Everything that was done under Rodney is now on my cpu, but those uinder Thomas are not. When in the set up after restore, I did not set up any users so Thomas stuff is not showing. I know they were included, because I saw many of them going in from the recovery disks. If I set him up as a standard user, will his files and folders be accessable? Or is there some other way to retrieve them? Maybe I should start a new topic on this? I have lost some real valuable stuff if I cannot get these things back. Thanks, Rod

[Shane]

If you used the recovery option that comes with the system they normally wipe the system and put it back to the way it was when it was installed.

But if you did a install of windows on top windows should have moved all the old profiles to a windows.old folder on the c: drive. See if you have that folder

Shane

[gsiamrod]

Shane, thanks! I found them.  Windows created a System recovery files. Everything is there! User Thomas is there. There is no "old folder" but I am happy that I have access to all created under Thomas. Every thing is there, including Tweaking Windows repair logs, Tweaking Registry backup--logs for all that was done from 2-2 to 2-7-13 with your programs. Every thing is here, but the only way that I can access these files now is open the system recovery file and click on the folders. Could there be a way to retreive them to my program files and folders?I have to click all over the place to open them and not sure now if I can work with them from system recovery. Am still playing with this, but I get to points where it is confusing what I am about to create. For instance, I am afraid to move one of these folders as windows may look for it in system recovery and not find it there. If I don't remember where I moved it to, I'll be on a witch hunt.I am a novice in this stuff and after what I went through last week end,  I am cautious to any changes. Thanks. Rod

[Shane]

A system recovery file? Take a screen shot of the file for me so I can see

Shane

[gsiamrod]

Shane, hope this is what you need.

[Shane]

OK, so it is just a folder and not a file. All you need to do is copy the files out of it that you need and paste them back to where you need them.

So go to C:\System Recovery Files\C\Users\Thomas

Copy what you need then go to C:\Users\ ***Your Username here****

And then paste

Shane

[gsiamrod]

Shane, I am not currently a user. I am administrator. There are no users or guests set up. However, in C/, under folder users, it shows folder Rodney and entries of what I have done since new restor. Will I have to set myself up as a standard user before copying and pasting Right now?
User account control is off and guest account is off. I don't want to create a problem by doing the user accounts wrong. Since I want to copy and past from Thomas user and others (in the recovery folder) to Rodney user,(current folder since recovery)  shouldn't I   change the name of administrator Rodney to another name and set up user account Rodney? Administrator names and user names are strong medicine and if not done right can cause a dummy like me hours of headaches. I appreaciate your time and effort on this! I'm dumb in these things and windows only creates questions for dummies like me. Thanks a million. Rod

[Shane]

No, you are a user, just an admin user. All user and admin profiles get stored under C:\Users.

Just copy and paste the files over, if it asks to overwrite any just say no to all of them. This way only missing files get copied over

Shane

[gsiamrod]

All right. Going to do some & let you know if I screw something up. LOL You & family have a nice Valentines Day! Rod