Hi Bert,
Not heard of this one before, but with any error messages, type some of the text into google,
Detail an i/o operation initiated by the registry failed unrecoverable, the regisry could not read in, write out, or flush one of the files that contain the systems image of the registry"
Brings up a response from microsoft.com technet
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodte ... x?mfr=true
Bit late now, but should have used add/remove programs to remove the antivirus program. The antivirus provided by Dell would be one of the main vendors, symantec, Mc Afee etc and the action you describe could be one of the online antivirus programs that are actually viruses, think antivirus 2008 and antivirus 2008pro are known examples.
Hmmm starting in safe mode, usually repeated pressing of the F8 key after switching on to start up click 'safe mode' then allow it a couple of minutes to load (you'll get a load of text across screen and one of lines near the bottom will have mup.sys at the end. It will appear to hang for a couple of minutes then press the continue in safe mode (or something like that). Once loaded go to 'start' then 'accessories, then System Restore', it may be after a system tools tag and see if you can restore the computer to an earlier date prior to the problem do that. Then restart in normal mode.
Windows by default stores its pictures, letters etc in the 'My Documents' folder. Now in XP or Vista you can tick a box which only lets the user view the folder. So if you have to reinstall the operating system (as microsoft technet suggests) then the folder will be lost, unless it can recover the current operating system, which from my experience it doesn't do very often. So its always better to copy your 'my documents' folder onto a dvd or another hard drive regularily or if you have a 2nd hard drive installed then you can move the 'my documents' folder there.
If the worst comes to the worst use the recovery disc and it might recover the current system, should it replace it the you can download free file recovery software and search for jpg files with it, but recovering or replacing the system may write over the disc where the photo files are, but thats a risk you'll have to take.
Go here
http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus- ... tag=button to download AVG free to replace the antivirus you had before and then make sure windows's own firewall is on.
Phil
