[cjhowland]

I have recently bought a new PC with OEM WinXP Pro pre-installed. When I first started the PC it logged on automatically to a desktop for a user called "user". I don't have any WinXP CDs to reinstall from.

I created two new Admin users, but when rebooting the PC always automatically logged in to the "user" account.

I installed some programs and everything worked, including switching between users, but the PC always logged on as "user".

I set a password for user "user", but the PC always logged on without asking for the password

I then installed a spare hard drive and formatted to NTFS. Ran the windows backup utility and backed up to the spare hard drive and created the diskette at the end of the backup routine.

I then went to My Computer/Manage/Users and disabled the user "user" and everything worked fine, switching between users.

Then ... I rebooted, and the PC shows the Windows XP logo, briefly flickers what looks like a sign-on screen and then displays the blue "Windows is loading ..." screen, at which point the PC freezes and won't even switch off without switching off at the mains.

I tried booting from the backup diskette, but it won't boot from the diskette.

I have now downloaded the six WindowsXP setup diskettes in the hope that I can boot from these and recover the system.

Could you tell me firstly why the PC kept logging on as "user" rather than displaying the welcome screen, and, more importantly, how to recover my system!!! I would ideally like to get the system back without using the backup, as I made some other changes after the backup, but if need be this would be OK.

I've read elsewhere that there may be a registry entry for the default user name - could this be the cause of the system bypassing the welcome screen?

HELP!!!

Chris Howland