OK, just finished reloading windows and everything is normal, all my files intact, nothing lost except time and patience, LOL.
Here is what I did:
Went into the BIOS and set boot order to CD first. Put Windows disk in and rebooted. Normally one can just let it do its thing until it gets to the choice of 1) setup Windows install or 2) Repair. In my case at the beginning of loading files I had to hit F6 to load the drivers for my RAID setup, then let it continue to load files until I got to the above choice, and chose setup fresh install (because I had previously tried the repair choice and it wouldn't work). It continued to load files and I hit F8 to accept the MS users agreement, then it detected the previous Windows install and asked if I want to repair that or do a clean install. I chose R (repair) and it did its thing for the next 45 mins or so (had to enter my license number and some other stuff) and when it finally finished all was well.
What a frustrating experience trying to work when one could read none of the letters. But now I have to remember for next time that one can do a repair without choosing to use the repair console which I originally tried and it wouldn't work for me. I didn't realize if I chose the clean install it would detect the defective original install and fix it, but it did. I am one happy camper.
Thanks everyone who tried to help for your ideas and suggestions. I wish I had been able to find out what caused the problem in the first place, but oh, well. Just keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't happen again! But if it does, at least I now know how to fix it!
Thanks again, and especially you Flo who always give of your time and effort so generously to all us poor frustrated non-Geeks.
Newly
AI
