lost icons and takbar- Help!

! dwarfchucka

Hi. Hope someone will be able to throw a bit of light on this. I've got a laptop running W2K. A couple of days ago, I loaded antivirus software and sometime after, I suddenly lost all my desktop icons and taskbar- all that shows now is the background. All my files seem to be lying around somewhere on the harddrive as I'm able to see them by using the taskmanager. Starting in safe mode doesn't work and I've tried system restore which doesn't work. (No viruses have been detected).
I've tried running explorer in the taskmanager but get a message that the file cannot be located(or one of its components).
Help!!

Standard Toaster

What file?

Shane™

Can you right click on the desktop?

Does the Win key (between Ctrl and Alt) work?

! dwarfchucka

The explorer file itself. This is the one that runs everything on the screen as far as i know.

! dwarfchucka

Shane&#8482 wrote:

Can you right click on the desktop?

Does the Win key (between Ctrl and Alt) work?

No- neither of these work.

Shane™

! dwarfchucka wrote:

No- neither of these work.

Guessed that from your next post, system restore was my first idea, but you've tried it so ... I think you should go looking for your Win2K CD.

Standard Toaster

Man, if you can't run explorer from taskmanager and it's the same in safe mode it's looking bad. Either virus or failing harddrive methinks. Hope ye have data backed up. Can really suggest anything but a repair on the windows installation.

! dwarfchucka

Shane&#8482 wrote:

Guessed that from your next post, system restore was my first idea, but you've tried it so ... I think you should go looking for your Win2K CD.

This will wipe all my files. I'm kind of hoping there might be a way to fix it without doing this but the hopes fading!!!

Standard Toaster

From Google:

Well for this I will show you the repair option for Microsoft Windows 2000.

• Follow the following steps.
  1) Make sure CD-Rom is first Boot Device in your Bios
  
  2) Insert your Windows 2000 CD
  
  3) Once this is done boot up using CD-Rom Drive. ( When "Hit any Key to Boot From CD-Rom" appears on screen, hit any key on keyboard to invoke CD-Rom boot)
  
• The "Repair Options" screen will eventually appear after Windows 2000 has loaded in device drivers. Press "R" to begin repair process.
• Soon you will see another "Repair" menu. Select "F" to perform all repair options.
• Now the "Emergency Repair Disk" menu will appear. If you have created the Emergency Repair Disks hit enter else press "L"
• Windows 2000 will now search for installs on your system
• The "Windows Installs" menu will appear. If you only have one install then press "ENTER" on your keyboard to continue. Or if there's more than one select the installation you wish to repair and then hit "ENTER"
• Windows 2000 will now repair your system either from the Emergency Repair Disks (ERD) or from the CD, once done your system will reboot and hopefully everything will be working fine

THE END

Shane™

I don't think uninstalling is your only option, I deleted my Boot.ini file (in XP) which is somewhat important, and I used a command prompt to rebuild it, got this through the XP CD, should be the same, done it in work on our server one time using floppies.

I'd give it a go but don't go mad, be cautious!

! dwarfchucka

Thanks a mill for your help. All my discs aren't accesible at the mo so i'll have to give your suggestion a shot in the morning.Will it clear all my data or is this method a bit more gentle than that??

Shane™

It's the gentle approach, BTW The_Edge's method is what I was also suggesting you do

! dwarfchucka

Shane&#8482 wrote:

It's the gentle approach, BTW The_Edge's method is what I was also suggesting you do

Great news. Hope it all goes well. I'll let you know tomorrow night (I'm on night shift now and have to head off).
Appreciated your quick replies very much lads.

Standard Toaster

Good luck man. Keep us posted.

! dwarfchucka

Just letting you know that I had to end up doing a full recovery. My laptop only came with 2 installation discs which contained the windows software and no seperate windows cd. :mad: I went to do the diagnostics which told me i had a working system. (all lies i tell you!!).
I hoped the recovery would give me mini options but no luck. Luckily i was able to back up a good amount of stuff first so its not all doom and gloom.
I'm thinking of upgrading to XP now seeing as everythings cleared off the hard drive.
Thanks again for your help and suggestions.