My Desktop PC (Windows XP Home Edition) will not start windows since I installed STOPZILLA, which had been listed as FREE. Big Mistake! First it slowed it down from an eight minute boot up and getting connected on line to about 45 minutes and all my programs were NOT RESPONDING; I could not even open and use Control Panel to move STOPZILLA. STOPzilla wanted to SELL me a removal tool and a noisy growling dragon kept popping up at me. When I did not "bite" a number appeared on the screen. They wanted me to pay for the software by telephone. I called, but complained -- on a tape, no human -- about what STOPzilla was doing to my computer. No response in four days. Even turning off the computer normally was impossible; everything was locked up, so I cut the power and attempted to reboot. I couldn't. . would check the DEVICES, and then count down to "Windows will open in --- seconds. Zero. It stayed stuck at this screen for hours. Next I tried Configuraretion Last Successfully Used to Open Windows. No better. Next I tried SAFE MODE. Still WINDOWS would not open. Then it got stuck at 19 seconds to count down to when windows will open. It stayed on that screen for about 24 hours. I have a disk that I could use to reinstall the original software but I would lose all my files -- years of work! I am writing this on my new Laptop -- which came with VISTA. 1 person needs an answerI do too

You have years of work on that machine which you've never backed up?!! Get your data off there safely first using one of the methods below. Then you will probably need to reinstall Windows. Doing this requires a certain level of computer skills. You know yourself best. If you can't do the work yourself (and there is no shame in admitting this isn't your cup of tea), take the machine to a professional computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of BigComputerStore/GeekSquad). 1. Pull the drive and put it in a USB drive enclosure or use a USB drive adapter. Attach this to a computer running a working install of XP/Vista/Windows7. Use the working Windows Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard drive and then burn the data to cd or dvd or copy it to an external hard drive. I prefer not to do this if I know the drive is infected because there is a chance of infecting the host system. In these cases, I use #2 below. 2. You can boot the target computer with a Bart's PE (XP only) or a Linux Live CD such as Knoppix or Ubuntu and retrieve the data that way. This has the additional advantage of telling you whether the problems you're having are hardware or software-related because if the computer behaves perfectly under Linux you know that Windows (software) is the culprit. Conversely, if the computer misbehaves under Linux you will know that there is a hardware problem. Here is general information on using Knoppix for data retrieval when you can't get into Windows: You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a CD/DVD burner OR a USB thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an external USB hard drive. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your bootable CD*. If you are doing this in an older operating system (XP or Vista), you'll need third-party burning software like Nero, Roxio, or the free ImgBurn (Windows 7 can burn .isos natively). Burn as an image, not as data. Then boot with the CD you created and Knoppix will be able to see the Windows files. If you are using the USB thumb drive or the external hard drive, right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties and uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it. Note that the default mouse action in the window manager used by Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead of the traditional MS Windows' double-click. If you want to burn CD/DVDs, use the K3b program. *If your computer only has one optical drive and you want to use that drive to burn data or need to test the drive, you can create a bootable USB thumb drive running Linux instead of a bootable CD. This website will show you how to do that - http://www.pendrivelinux.com http://www.knoppix.net http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - Bart's PE Builder Also see - http://lifehacker.com/5504531/the-complete-guide-to-saving-your-windows-system-with-a-thumb-drive And for future disaster recovery strategies - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Backing_Up MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!