Computer Dramas

**Debacle** · 29th July 2009, 07:45 AM

Got a major problem.

Decided to try reinstalling IE8 hoping it would fix some problems I was having.

Bad move. After uninstalling and restarting I got a message that iertutil.dll was missing and just got a blank screen after that.
I have another xp installation on a second drive in the computer so got onto that, found where i could download this file and copied into the windows system 32 folder.
When I tried to restart the machine I got a different message, something to do with an ordinal 173 out of sequence and then a blank screen.

Ok, so i thought i could just move the files i need off that drive and do a clean re-install.

Next problem is that when I try to access My Documents from the other drive it tells me that access is denied.

There is a lot of very important stuff on there that I cant afford to lose.
I have also tried taking the drive out and putting it into an external caddy but it makes no difference.

Can anyone give advice on how i can either fix the original installation, or how i might go about retrieving the My Documents files so that i can do a re-install.
I had considered doing a re-install over the current one while leaving the files intact but am a bit concerned that may make it worse.

I am running NOD32 anti virus and had done a complete scan before all this happened.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

**lro11** · 29th July 2009, 08:07 AM

have you tried the system restore to a date where you know your system was good?

**abaddonxi** · 29th July 2009, 08:15 AM

Four things -

Download a linux boot cd
Boot from cd
Retrieve My Documents
Throw computer out window.

**Captain_Rightfoot** · 29th July 2009, 08:18 AM

I had a similar problem on a near new Dell with XP at work, but it was ie6. Basically it seemed that ie had become corrupted. We tried uninstalling and reinstalling ie, updating, repairing etc but we just couldn't get ie to work.

We could get other browsers to run, but despite what they say ie is so heavily ingrained in the os that I couldn't open windows explored so couldn't manage files or drives.

They had the best minds look at it but as they say, all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put Humpty together again. They wiped the os and did a clean install. No one could offer any explanation.

Thankfully I am not paid by the job

**Delta_Farce** · 29th July 2009, 08:41 AM

abaddonxi has the right idea.

Grab the Ubuntu Live CD from Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu, boot it as a live desktop environment (rathen than install it) and use that to copy all files you want to an external usb drive. That should let you do a clean install after the backup, with no data loss.

I'm assuming that you're using WinXP with NTFS as the file system. If you're using Vista's TxF or have encrypted the files then you might have bigger problems...

**Debacle** · 29th July 2009, 09:38 AM

Originally Posted by abaddonxi

Four things -

Download a linux boot cd
Boot from cd
Retrieve My Documents
Throw computer out window.

Thanks for that Simon and Delta Farce, I have a Ubuntu cd at home somewhere, will give it a go when I get home.

**Debacle** · 29th July 2009, 09:39 AM

Originally Posted by lro11

have you tried the system restore to a date where you know your system was good?

All i get is a blank screen, cant get into system restore.

**Debacle** · 29th July 2009, 09:42 PM

I wish I had my brain in gear last night, it ended up being so simple.

Went to the xp inst on the working drive, found where the dll file was on it, copied it to the corresponding file on the problem drive, restart and working as it was before.

I can stop panicking now.

**LOVEMYRANGIE** · 29th July 2009, 10:06 PM

Use Firefox... No more problems...

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