I reinstalled xp after a screw up first install. I boot up but some programs won't run because of win.ini. I went to msconfig and I have a blank screen for both win and sys.ini. What happened and how can I fix it. I did an upgrade with the repair and still can't get any info . Would they be hidden or where are they??????

Do you have win.ini.backup and system.ini.backup? You could try renaming them.

renaming with what extension? I found win.ini backup with no bytes but no sys.ini. Can I restore to an earlier date.

When you installed the XP, it replaced your win.ini and system.ini files... Not sure where you are in the process. I needed to go back to my Win98 O/S and had to recover the registry in order to make it work again. If that's what you need to do, here''s how to manually recover your win.ini and system.ini: From the DOS (command) prompt go to your windows directory. Then type scanreg/restore and press enter. You should be presented with choices of the last several registries... A properly working registry has the word "started" next to the date. Select the most recent one that shows "started". You should then receive notification that the registry has been restored.... thus, your win.ini and system.ini will be back to normal. p.s.... had this happen to me over the weekend and it took many internet searches to find the manual instructions... good luck!