Hi All, I was halting some processes that were clogging up my system which was pretty successful until I halted wdfmgr.exe. About 30 seconds after that, my PC spontaneously rebooted and will not get back into XP. It then keeps rebooting until I physically turn it off w/ the power button. My guess is that the file is now corrupted and is a critical component of the OS. My friend thinks it is some sort of Windows Driver Foundation which assists in certain processes. As far as I can get into the booting process is the Windows Welcome screen (The one that says Windows XP and has the blue running line underneath.) Then the screen goes dark and nothing else happens. After about two minutes, it reboots again. I tried every Safe Mode, VGA mode, etc etc and they all hang up. Honestly, I don't care about recovering anything except the My Pictures folder in my PC. Everything else is of no real value. Anyone have any advice or ideas? I appreciate it. Tony

Classification of wdfmgr.exe: System Process wdfmgr is a system process and removing wdfmgr.exe is not recommended. wdfmgr is considered safe. wdfmgr.exe seems to be associated with Microsoft. This is part of MediaPlayer 10 / XP Service Pack 2. Rule #1 Good computers don't go down. Rule #2 There is no such thing as a good computer.

Thanks Rick - I wish I knew that before tinkering with it. I am guessing it is corrupted and is causing this rebooting. Any ideas on how I can restore this file? If the worst happens and I cannot do that, do you or anyone have any ideas how I can recover files in the My Pictures folder? After that I will just do a clean wipe and start over. Thanks! Tony

To find out what each Startup(or Process) item does or means, and any recommendation as to if you should close the process: Task List Programs For if no Safe-Mode: How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP

BTW, Task List Programs says, At the time of writing this service gets installed on Windows XP when you either install Windows Media Player 10, or when you upgrade to Service Pack 2 for Windows XP.....

Thanks Chuck, I was just tried a non-destructive reinstall of the OS. HP has XP install files on a separate partition which allows you to do a non-destructive reinstall. Looks like all files were reinstalled. I get as far as the initial XP setup (speaker check, registration, time zone, etc.) But at the end when I click the "Final" arrow which would presumably launch XP, my cursor turns into the hourglass and goes no further. Darn ... So I guess I should just try to recover my data files - what should be the easiest way to do that? I have a CD burner, DVD burner, but I doubt those can be used unless I can access XP correct? Thanks... Tony

One method to recover files would be to install the HDD as a Slave drive on another computer, then get files. Or pay a professional to get the files. OR wait to see if others have help from here.