System Mechanic deleted important files!!!

[Rahwgwar]

I need some help. I'm on the verge of a freakin breakdown rite now......well i downloaded system mechanic and used the trial version to delete some registry and unnecessary files. I told it to speficially not delete windows files and zero length files. I made a system restore point a couple days earlier and I made sure that I unchecked any of the "iffy" options to delete, so I thought I would have had it taken care of just in case something goes wrong. Well I cleaned up the files and left the computer and everything was running fine. It connected to the main server to download the newest version and when it finished it told me to resart which I did. When I restarted I noticed the new logon screen was in classic mode. I found that strange but knew it could easily be fixed. When my icons loaded they were all messed up. They were really distorted and not clear. And now some programs won't work and it appears that System Mechanic deleted all my drivers or something.....I can't connect to the Internet. There are a bunch of various problems affected, l can't see some of the toolbars in programs and the start menu is completely rendered useless. It is covered by a gray bar. My images have also been corrupted, luckily my 403 songs seem to be normal and that takes a long time on 56k. I was wondering what I can do. I tried restore point and roll back and it couldn't really work. I'm just thinking about reloading windows again and it's a new computer and I haven't created any backups for it yet, except for a few programs. I don't want to lose any of my important data. I am running an HP Pavilion 7935 @ 1.3 Ghz amd athlon, Win XP. I feel so screwed and I don't know what to do. Please help me because I have tried everything and I don't know what to do. It seems like the work of a trojan horse. I did download it from kazaa BUT i am extremely careful at looking at file size and extension. I also have Norton Antivirus 2002 and the latest updates. I have Norton enabled all the time. Please give me some suggestions on what I can do. I don't feel like going on a fresh load of Windows. I just customized everything the way I wanted it and tweaked it to hell and back. It was running at its peak before this happened. I can post a pic of my desktop later to give u a better understanding of the situation because it is really hectic and difficult to explain it all.

[I. Tinker]

You should have a windows xp disk that come with the computer . Reinstall windows over your existing installation. Windows xp has repair option on the original disk . Installing over the existing windows xp can be done without deleting what you have on the computer. That may fix some of your problems . Most drivers will be on the installation disk and can be recovered from it . Dump System Mechanic and give Ontracks System Suite 4 a try. I have tried most of the programs out and find Ontrack to be one of the safest to use . You might want to give programs like GoBack that can do full backups of your system for restoring later when you have problems like that.

[Skinnyfatz]

:fire Hey bud, System Mechanic has a feature that lets you undo any changes it made. One of the things it does by default, is to backup any changes it makes in to an undo file. If you didn't uncheck that box, all you have to do, is go to where you made the changes, and click restore, and it will restore all the changes it made. Hope that helps you.

[notbob]

if you are not knowledgeable enough to know how to edit the registry, for gods sake don't get ANY program that messes with it

all you newbies out there--let this be a lesson to you--leave the registry alone!!

as to the guy that said to install xp on top, that will make windows work, but it'll fuck every installed program up--why? because it puts in a fresh registry, with none of the keys for your installed programs

[Power Penguin]

Doctor: "Don't do that, then"

Great advice I think, as it stops me reading a boring post about "System Mechanic". Yawn.