Registry deleted, XP not starting up

[RigbyBaffers]

I was having that windows system32 error message come up and i went on to microsoft http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833767 ) and found a solution for it but i was not too focussed and although i saw there was a warning at the top i didn't pay much atention, I took one look at it's advice then went to my registry and deleted what i thought at the time was right. Shortly after i'd done this i realised that i hadn't deleted the one thing i'd seen the start and deleted all of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE, i initially thought it was alright because it came up with an error message claiming not all could be deleted so i quickly cancelled. i then shut down and tried to start up and after the usual start up i got to the microsoft windows logo but it was discoloured and i can't get any further. i have tried a few things but i was wondering whether anyone had any advice. Thanks in advance

[cfry]

Hi RigbyBaffers,

Have a look at this article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

If that doesn't work, I'd get an external HD case, take your HD out and put it in that, recover any data you want to keep on another computer, put the HD back into your original machine and reinstall Windows.

Assuming your data isn't encrypted and there's no hardware problems, that is a pretty definite fix
(despite being a bit difficult).

Let me know if you need any clarification,

Chris Fry
Canberra, Australia