[andrew3]

My XP pro got trashed after installing Norton Ghost 12. The irony of a backup product wrecking my machine does not escape me. After several hours of useless online chat and phone conversations with the "support" staff at Symantec, I turned to the web and complete strangers for help.

The machine would not boot at all, it came to the screen that said "windows could not start properly, start in safe mode, start at last valid restore point etc. etc. ..." regardless of which option you picked, it would always return to the same screen.

Anyway, I determined that there was a good chance that I could restore the machine to a pre-Symantec infection state if I could access a super secret hidden XP folder named "System Volume Information". Since at the time I did not know the exact name of the folder or where on the disk it was located, I used the XP repair console from the XP install disk to invoke the ATTRIB command and remove all of the hidden attributes from all of the files. Hey, it was already broke and this wasn't going to break it any more.

Bottom line is, I did get the files I needed out of the System Volume Information folder and was able to restore my PC to before Symantec condition, but now all of my XP files are visible to all. I'm not so much worried that I'll screw one of these files up, but wife and kids also use this pc and who knows what they may do.

Is there any way to restore the original hidden attributes to the XP syatem files other than going thru them one by one? Using the folders options in Control panel has no effect, the files are still visible. Also. I did a repair install of XP, which also had no effect.

Thanks in advance.