this is the exact message that my computer says before it atomaticly shuts down... "Cannot find SYSTEM.INI you need to run windows setup again to reinstall the file." then it says "press any key to continue..." if you press a key it shuts down, if you dont it shuts down any help would be great!

You could restart to DOS (F8 brings up the startup menu) and enter scanreg /restore to roll back the registry to an earlier date - this also replaces system.ini and win.ini Click

Iv tried that but when i hit F8 it doesnt give me the option to type anything it has option to boot from floppy, CD, or nothing. so i dont even know if i can get into safe mode...

Tap the F8 key every second or so during the boot. Sometimes holding down the ctrl key works.

OMG!!! you guys are awsome!!!!! thank you soo much! now i have my wonderful comp back :) (i had to hit F8 then enter then F8 again) onve again thank you :)

Rizza- There should be a copy of your current WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP directory, but it may not be easy for you to get to from your dos prompt .. it's stored in a file called RB000.CAB . However, assuming that your WINDOWS directory is intact, AND your path statement includes the C:\WINDOWS directory, you should be able to use EXTRACT.exe from the DOS command line to restore your configuration. Before doing anything else, try to COPY the cab file to c:\ with this: copy c:\windows\sysbckup\rb000.cab You can safely view or unpack files from this copy without harming your WINDOWS installation in any way. To VIEW the contents of C:\rb000.cab , type at DOS prompt ("c:\" , NOT "c:\windows" !!): extract -d rb000.cab You will see your current win.ini and system.ini stored here in addition to USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT, all nescessary for starting WINDOWS. To RESTORE these to your C:\WINDOWS directory, type: extract /e c:\windows\sysbckup\rb000.cab system.ini If you want to extract WIN.INI (or the other files in the cab as well, just add them after the 1st filename, with a space in between: Example: extract /e c:\windows\sysbckup\rb000.cab system.ini win.ini or, to extract ALL the files: extract c:\windows\sysbckup\rb000.cab *.* You may not see them all becuase the *.DAT files have the "hidden" attribute set; you can un-hide them by typing: attrib -h -r -s *.* and they will show up when you type DIR again. EXTRACT.EXE will display a message that it is copying the file(s). BEFORE you do this, MAKE SURE that "C:\WINDOWS" is indeed in your path statement. If it isn't, you can fix that in your autoexec.bat, or just type: path c:\windows;c:\ from the C:\ prompt, then try extract again WITHOUT re-starting machine. Once the file(s) is/are copied to WINDOWS, **THEN** re-start normally and see if Windows starts properly for you. If it doesn't, there are probably other files missiing. You don't have to be realistic to be cynical, but you DO have to be cynical to be realistic!

Glad it all worked out - scanreg /restore is a more automated version of the process described by Doormat, and a bit less selective (but somewhat simpler). Rolling back the registry means that programs installed after the backup was made (if any) might need to be reinstalled. Click