did you try system restore?

No, thanks, but that doesn't work...any other ideas?

...also to add; I reformatted both harddrives...and then the problem occurred, leaving me with no other profile than the one that's messed up.
-alan

Assuming you are using winxp ,boot in safe mode and create a new user in control panel /users .

Yeah that's awesome spybot worked, thanks so much . However I'm back to the problem I had before, i am unable to open a few programs i dl such as winamp. All that pops up is a blank black screen...the 'command prompt' screen as a matter of fact... Got any Ideas? thanks again
-alan

[quote=alan9;16193]First off I should say that I have installed a new drive on my hp computer, and have tried to format both the old and new drive(after i used the new drive for a few weeks), but i was unable to. I had to fall to formatting my hard drives because my computer seemed to have a virus, though it still isn't able to open programs, instead it brings up a blank black box with the title bar reading 'C:/(the program here)' and it says that the 'file is to large to open'...But the one of the hard drives was unable to format. now...


...I am unable to use my toolbars on my desktop because I cannot pull them up, yes they are on auto-hide but they will not come up. My desktop icons won't even show up...actually i can't even right click on my desktop, I have resorted to going to task manager and running a program by browsing through the run task menu. However, when I run it on safemode the bars are visible, as are the icons.

I just cured that condition on my laptop. The procedure was to RESTORE to November (e.g.) using F8 on bootup and getting into plain mode. The problem was cured on the 2d bootup after that.
Catch22: A site offered a registryfix program, but after download it there's no way to get at it with no Start menu. Possibly save to desktop where the icons still show up. Jackpol

Regarding your 1st problem I think there is problem in your Windows Explorer, if you have this problem just press ctrl+alt+del windows task manager will open, then from file menu select new task and then from your windows directory run Explorer, after doing this all your desktop items will appears.

Seeing all the problems you've faced, I'd say you back up your data, delete all partitions and reload XP. If you're not able to format, you could use the debug command to delete all partitions and start fresh. Boot off of a Windows 98 Startup disk and type the following commands

debug
-F 200 L1000 0
-A CS:100
xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301
xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200
xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1
xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80


NOTE: Type 80 for the Main hard drive - HD 0, or type 81 for the Second hard drive - HD 1.


xxxx:010C INT 13
xxxx:010E INT 20
xxxx:0110 (Leave this line blank and press the <Enter> key)
-G


Note: Bold text represents commands you type in. After this restart the computer, repartition and reformat the computer.

My friend is also having the same problem although she didn't do anytype of reformatting on the hard drive. Are the same steps needed?

Everything works besides no icons, no start menu, cannot right click on the desktop.