Need help in XP Windows Advanced Options Menu: c000021a Fatal System Error

Quick background story: A couple of days ago I posted a thread here about a virus attack I was suffering--it was subsequently and rightly moved to the Security and Anti-Virus Software section. I ended up downloading a virus removal program and after running it, ended up quarantining and erasing the suspect files--along with, apparently, some vital OS files.

After the virus removal quarantine and erasure, my laptop (running XP) tried to restart but could not do so properly. A prompt screen offered safe mode and I was able to get back to my desktop screen--some functions were disabled (my wifi, soundcard, etc) but I was able to save a few key files onto my flash drive. I decided that I would purchase an external hard drive in the morning and back up the rest then. Because I could not hibernate or put the computer to sleep, I turned it off, assuming I could resume in safe mode later.

Present circumstances: Safe Mode or no Safe Mode?

1) When I turn on my laptop now, I get this message in white letters over a blue screen:

STOP: c000021 {Fatal System Error}
The Session Manager Initialization system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc000021 (0x00000000 ox00000000).
The system has been shut down.

2) Starting the computer up holding down F8 or F12 did nothing. The above message would simply appear. Miraculously, however, I have managed to reach a Windows Advanced Options Menu I'm now terrified to touch anything though, as I don't know if I can get to this screen again...I'm not sure whether to attempt to boot in Safe Mode or to try Last Known Good Configuration. The Microsoft page on c000021a errors is here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;156669

They identify the c000021a cause as follows: "The STOP 0xC000021A error occurs when either Winlogon.exe or Csrss.exe fails." I do not see anything about Safe Mode, only a Dr. Watson procedure and Last Known Good Configuration as a sort of last resort. I do not trust myself to tinker with the former, but I will attempt whatever is necessary.

I simply want to get back to my desktop so that I can unload all of my files onto an external hard drive. I'm not concerned with resetting anything...I figure I will just re-install XP, if I can simply get my files off the hd.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

If you really need to get those files off the drive first, then what you need to do is get an external enclosure, take the drive out of the bum computer, put that drive into the external enclosure and then plug it into a working computer and copy off all the files you need.

Once you've got the valuables safely secured, then you can afford to take the leap of faith into fixing your bum system without worrying about losing what you cannot afford to lose.

Once that's done, I would suggest going for the last known good configuration, to see if that can recover enough of the damaged system files to get to a full boot up.

Other than that, it might simply be easiest to just reinstall the OS after you've recovered your valuable files rather than trying to monkey around with repairing this installation.

 

A repair might be in order.

http://forums.techarena.in/windows-xp-support/451087.htm

However, as Shyster stated, you should recover as much data before attempting to repair the operating system.

 

Okay, so Safe Mode did not work. I next tried Last Known Good Configuration and, well, it worked...a message flashed onto the screen, saying something about restoring a misplaced file and in my excitement I clicked OK before writing down exactly what it said. I am now back on and everything appears to be fine...But I'm taking no chances and backing up everything right now and I will then re-install XP once I've saved everything. Thanks for the advice.