Hello, I have a problem with my laptop. It is a Gateway laptop with 4 GB of memory and Vista Home Premium 64 bit version. The sequence of events happened to the best of my memory:

1) I ran a registry cleaner which seemed to remove more than I wanted. When I restarted my computer and tried to login my laptop did not recognize my password any longer. I checked to make sure the caplocks was off too. After several hundred attempts to login with my password with no success I looked for other solutions.

2) I tried to go into the Bios and reset the password to no avail. I tried using Hirens 12 cd reboot to change the password to no avail. Finally, I used my Avanquest Recovery Fix It Utilities 11 and was able to get in and reset my password.



3) After logging back in I began to check my system to see what changes occurred from the crash. Here are the changes: 1) the Recovery D Drive no longer exists, 2) All Restore points were gone, 3) the Recovery Management System no longer worked or was accessible, and 4) the Windows Security was affected with no antivirus and the firewall was disabled. As you can see whatever it was it did a doozy on my system.

4) My next step was try to restore my laptop to an earlier time and I couldn't because as I stated earlier the restore system was disabled and no restore points were found by the laptop. I tried to do a complete recovery but the recovery drive was gone and I do not have any recovery disks.

5) I went to the internet with my desktop computer to find a solution. I found and downloaded a Vista Repair disk and burned the ISO image on a cd. Several attempts failed with the repair disk. Maybe I didn't download the right repair disk, but it claimed to be for Vista Home Premium 64 bit version.

So, I am at a lost for ideas except ordering the Recovery Disks from Gateway that are specific for my laptop or just upgrading to Windows 7. Before upgrading or ordering the recovery disks I was hoping to find a working solution to the problem.
Does anyone have any suggestions or advice for my problem?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi Rich, thank you for your quick reply. Here is my laptop info.

Gateway
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64
Version: 6.0.6002 Service Pack 2 Build 6002
System Model: M-7351U
Processor: Pentium Dual Core T4200 @2.00GHz, 2000 Mhz

Thank you Rich for your assistance. I discovered the problem. Almost all of my services were disabled. I went into msconfig mode and went to services and restarted all the services which allowed the recovery system to work once again. I did a Recovery to my system and now setting it back up like it came right off the shelf. Hope this helps anyone else with the same problem.