I have had a lot of errors in my day but this one is very new to me. Ok. So, my system crashes after accidentally lauching Windows Media player..(this is normal) so I let it reboot. Well, it gets to the login screen where I click on my name to load my desktop and then......It says "saving settings" and goes back to the login screen.. I had installed new drivers for my video card the day before but had not rebooted yet and I'm thinking that it can be the only reason this is happening, maybe the drivers did not take right.. Well..I can't get into safe mode, nor VGA mode, and I can't use last known good configuration..I can not get to a dos prompt So..Any ideas on how to get back to my desktop without having to reinstall my OS..I have too much installed and it is not really an option.. Thanks for any help.. Seth 2000MB of hosting space for 14.95/month SkyHoster.com

One way to recover you data would be to install the HDD on another computer as slave drive, then remove your data. or Buy another HDD, install XP, then put other in as a slave drive. Best to back up your files frequently. Watch for help from others.

I've seen it before when a Win2k machine won't load a profile after logging in and goes straight back to the splash screen. In both cases it was after a second HDD had been installed and Windows had moved the paging file to the second HDD. Then when the second HDD was taken out Windows wouldn't get past the log in screen due to no page file.. A repair install fixed it both times. The second HDD probably has nothing to do with your problem but I threw it in there because I've seen it before. have you tried a repair install?

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP