Vista - Loss of function of Start Orb + desktop, C Drive unable to transfer files now

Hi,

I just searched the vista forums through a 100 different results, and have found no answer to my problem.

Let me describe the problem first: The Start Button (Orb) in Vista does not respond to prompt, neither left click nor keyboard button. However I can right click the Orb and receive the pop up menu. I can change the Menu to 'Classic' and then it will work, but am unable to change it back to Vista.

Now to the Desktop : I cannot right click anywhere on the desktop and receive a pop-up menu. I can click on any Icon or Short Cut in the desktop itself and get those to work.

Items related to these problems:

1. had a power shortage last night, but the computer was already off before it happened, so I don't know if it is related or not - but could be the cause?
2. Cannot run cmd from Classic Menu nor from desktop
3. There are no descriptions of the Hard Drives when I explore the 'My Computer' and not the DVD drives either.
4. Have 2 user accounts (one Admin, one family) and all problems exhist in both accounts.
5. have tried a repair install with my boot cd and it found nothing (perhaps I'm doing it wrong, but I boot from CD, choose Repair and the cd runs for a bit and then the message appears that says nothing is wrong).
6. have restored to a previous point (choose 2 days ago as restore point) and problem still exhists. Choose an even earlier date, problem still exhists.
7. Have run sys /scannow from cmd by right clicking on a folder and opening cmd in that directory. Ran cmd from Admin account. Sysscan failed after verifying 83% with Error message 'Windows resource protection could not perfrom the requested action'.
8. Have tried to open Taskbar and close explorer.exe and then open New Task, but New Task in Task Bar does not function and then I must log off or restart to get explorer.exe back.
9. have googled the problem but have found no solutions
10. Have tried to create a slipstream CD with SP1, but it fails after trying to install SP1 with different error messages.
11. Have tried to Uninstall SP1 through various methods, (safe mode, boot cd, restore points, control panel) and everything has failed - unable to remove SP1.
12. All I want to accomplish now (of course if the head issues can't be fixed) is to move my pictures from my Boot Drive to a backup drive so I can re-install. Any way to do this?

I have Vista 64 Ultimate with SP1 installed and all updates to yesterday.

So how can I fix this? I hope that there is a solution that does not involve re-installing Vista.

Any Help Please?