This is an acer laptop. It refused to boot, stopping just after the bios screen. tried recovery console to no avail. Installed a second copy of XP to recover files before re-formatting. Under documents and setting was able to see old users, but could only acces the ones that were never password protected. I have the passwords for the other accounts but it doesn't even rompt for them - not suprisingly i suppose. Anyway, how can i gain access to these folders so that i can recover files? Any ideas greatfully received ... Chris

Resources for Troubleshooting Startup Problems in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308041

Thanks but i've tried all that and now the problem is really how to access encrypted or at least password protected directories from an old install Chris