Good afternoon, This one is a real lulu. I own a Dell Inspiron 8600 Laptop which has been behaving up to now. I run Windows XP with SP2. This laptop is currently fitted in a Dell Advanced Port Replicator (base station) In addition two portable USB hard drives are also connected. Among the software I use is Registry Mechanic which has given me every satisfaction up to now. The other day, I was running a routine maintenance cleaning the registry which I also compacted (I hadn't done the latter for a long time) The problem occurred when I restarted the machine. Windows started in the usual manner displaying the usual XP logo until I got the Windows problem screen. When trying to restart in last working configuration I get a blank screen.. The other start up options get me a list of drivers (?) so: multi(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\windows\System32\DRIV ERS\PCIIDEX.SYS, etc. It then freezes and I cannot generate a DOS command prompt. Of course, I tried to get help from PC Solutions who market Registry Mechanic. Getting an answer out of them is like trying to get a free seat on the next space shuttle. Can anybody help? I would really appreciate it. I should add that I'm no computer expert, I'm a long time user but when it comes to DOS I'm lost. Thank you very much. All the best, Boyard

Try running chkdsk from the recovery console. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058 Before posting try google. Backup. Use anti virus software.

Thank you very much indeed. I will certainly try this. All the best, Boyard