Taskbar and Startup Issues

[Woodlediaper]

1) Version of XP
I am running Windows XP Home Edition

2) Hardware setup
P4 2.8Ghz, 128mb Radeon 9600XT, 1028MB DDR Ram (2 512 sticks, dual channel) 160GB Hard drive

3) What exactly happened leading up to the problem
Oh where to begin? The problem began first with Windows XP only detecing 127 of the 160GB that my hard drive contains. My BIOS are detecting the full 160GB so figuring it was windows I went to the Western Digital website and looked at the knowledge base under Size Limitation and the suggestion was to install Service Pack 1a. I did so and the problem was not resolved, instead I got a very annoying taskbar with a search assistant and quick launch buttons that I can remove, but show up once again on every boot. Since it didn't solve the problem I attempted to reinstall Windows XP and chose upgrade, which removed the Service Pack but still had the taskbar issues and now starts up the My Documents folder on every launch. I once again tried a reinstall, this time using the repair option, and the search assistant is gone, but the quick launch still comes back every time and the My Documents folder always launches. On attempt to restore Windows XP to an earlier date, I recieve an error message that I will show below. I also recieve a slightly different error message when right clicking My Computer and clicking properties, which will also be shown below (although the system menu shows up after I click OK to this error message).

4) Exact error messages
rstrui.exe - Entry Point Not Found
The procedure entry point RemoteAssistancePrepareSystemRestore could not be located in the dynamic link library WINSTA.dll

rundll32.exe - Entry Point Not Found
The procedure entry point RemoteAssistancePrepareSysemRestore could not be located in the dynamic link library WINSTA.dll

5) Any antivirus, firewall software you are running
I am running Norton AntiVirus 2003, with the firewall in my network settings disabled.

[pip22]

It's never a good idea to install XP over itself or even over an earlier version. I would cut your losses and do a clean install from scratch after backing up your own stuff first of course.
And before the install I would create two partitions on the drive which would get around the size problem you currently have.
make the boot partition ,say. 100G and the rest as a documents or backup partition - then if XP goes belly up again your own files will be safe on the other partition.

Pip