If safe mode and other startup options do not work, you can consider using the Recovery Console. This method is recommended only if you are an advanced user who can use basic commands to identify and locate problem drivers and files. In addition, you must be an administrator to use the Recovery Console.

Using the Recovery Console, you can enable and disable services, format drives, read and write data on a local drive (including drives formatted to use NTFS), and perform many other administrative tasks. The Recovery Console is particularly useful if you need to repair your system by copying a file from a floppy disk or CD-ROM to your hard drive, or if you need to reconfigure a service that is preventing your computer from starting properly.

There are two ways to start the Recovery Console:

If you are unable to start your computer, you can run the Recovery Console from your Setup CD.

As an alternative, you can install the Recovery Console on your computer to make it available in case you are unable to restart Windows. You can then select the Recovery Console option from the list of available operating systems on startup.

After you start the Recovery Console you will have to choose which installation you want to log on to (if you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system) and you will have to log on with your administrator password.

The console provides commands you can use to do simple operations such as changing to a different directory or viewing a directory, and more powerful operations such as fixing the boot sector. You can access Help for the commands in the Recovery Console by typing help at the Recovery Console command prompt.

For information on starting and using the Recovery Console, see Related Topics.

Once you are running the Recovery Console, you can get help on the available commands by typing help at the command prompt.

To start the computer and use the Recovery Console:

From the Setup CD-ROM

Insert the Setup compact disc (CD) and restart the computer. If prompted, select any options required to boot from the CD.

When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts; choose the repair or recover option by pressing R.

If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console.

When prompted, type the Administrator password.

At the system prompt, type Recovery Console commands; type help for a list of commands, or help commandname for help on a specific command.

To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit.

If you have already installed the Recovery Console

During Startup, select Recovery Console from the startup options menu.

If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console.

When prompted, type the Administrator password.

At the system prompt, type Recovery Console commands; type help for a list of commands, or help commandname for help on a specific command.

To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit.

Important: Because the Recovery Console is quite powerful, it is recommended for use only by advanced users or administrators.

Diskpart

Creates and deletes partitions on a hard drive. The diskpart command is only available when you are using the Recovery Console.

diskpart [/add | /delete] [device_name | drive_name | partition_name] [size]

Parameters

none

Used without parameters, the diskpart command starts the Windows character-mode version of diskpart.

/add

Creates a new partition.

/delete

Deletes an existing partition.

device_name

The device on which you want to create or delete a partition. The name can be obtained from the output of the map command. An example of a device name is:

\Device\HardDisk0

drive_name

The partition you want to delete, by drive letter. Used only with /delete. An example of a drive name is:

D:

partition_name

The partition you want to delete, by partition name. Can be used in place of the drive_name. Used only with /delete. An example of a partition name is:

\Device\HardDisk0\Partition1

size

The size, in megabytes (MB), of the partition you want to create. Used only with /add.

Examples

The following examples delete a partition:

diskpart /delete \Device\HardDisk0\Partition3

diskpart /delete F:

The following example adds a 20 MB partition to your hard drive:

diskpart /add \Device\HardDisk0 20

Possible Solution: Under LAN Connection Properties (the Authentication tab) by default it is set to use IEEE 802.1X for network access control with the EAP type set to Smart Card or Certificate.  I changed the EAP to MD5-Challenge and now it works fine.

Possible Solution: It is for setting different priorities for different data streams. For example, you would want a higher priority for audio/video streaming compared with file downloads. Apparently it is not used in peer-to-peer working so it is safe to delete it.

However, if you do any streaming audio/video with Windows Media Player it would not be a good idea to delete it.

Possible Solution: From Kent W. England – Microsoft MVP: If you want to disable this mostly useless feature:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; disable unread mail notice for all users
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail]

“MessageExpiryDays“=dword:00000000

; disable unread mail notice for current user
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail]

“MessageExpiryDays“=dword:00000000

If you just want to clear the notice and not disable it, there are email accounts under the UnreadMail key that correspond to your hotmail.com account and a key called “MessageCount” that you can set to zero.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail\foo@hotmail.com]

“MessageCount“=dword:00000000

Possible Solution: From Kent W. England – MicroSoft MVP: Likely you are using a standard cable (called a “straight-thru” cable) that is designed to connect a computer to a hub. You need a non-standard cable (called a “crossover” cable) to connect a computer to a computer. You can find these at your local computer hardware store.
Your network adapter will register as “unplugged” until BOTH computers are turned on.

Possible Solution: This is caused by a damaged Registry key.  To Remove the broken Key in Windows^® XP
1) Click Start, click Run, and then type regedt32 in the Open box.
2) Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Protected Storage System Provider
3) Right click the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Protected Storage System Provider key, and then Select Permissions.
4) In the Permissions for Protected Storage System Provider dialog box, click the Advanced tab. Make sure that the <Username> has Full Control access. Deselect “Inherit from Parent…” and select “Replace permission entries…”
5) Click OK.
6) Repeat steps 3 through 5 for each subkey that is listed under the Protected Storage System Provider registry key; otherwise, you may receive the following error message when you try to delete the Protected Storage System Provider key:

        Registry editor could not delete the key currently selected. The key or one of its
subkeys does not give you delete access.

Note: The sub keys under Protected Storage System Provide will look something like this:

    S-1-5-21-1085031214-1202660629-1708537768-1003
7) At this point, you can delete the Protected Storage System Provider key by clicking Delete on the Edit menu. If you prefer, you can first export a copy of this key, and then delete the key. To export the key, right click the Protected Storage System Provider key, and select Export.
8) When you click Delete, you receive the following message:

        Registry editor will delete the currently selected key and all its subkeys. Do you want to continue
the operation?

Click Yes to finish the process.
9) Start Outlook Express. When Outlook Express checks your mail account(s) you will be able to re-enter your password(s). This process repopulates the Protected Storage System Provider registry key with the correct information for that computer’s SID.

From: http://people.ne.mediaone.net/dbknox/xp/tips/xp_oe_passwords.htm

Possible Solution: If you are running AVP antivirus, uninstall it.

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q294/7/56.ASP?

Possible Solution: From Mike Ketchen – Microsoft MVP: If it’s a USB device, go to the Start Menu and right-click on My Computer. Click on the Hardware tab, then click on Device Manager. At the end of the tree should be “Universal Serial Bus controllers.”
Expand that node (click on the little plus sign), right-click on “USB Root Hub,” and select Properties. Click on the Power Management tab, uncheck the box labeled “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power,” and click OK.

That will keep Windows XP from turning off your USB devices when it sees no activity (very annoying if you have a USB mouse).

Possible Solution: Go to Administrative Tools>Computer Management and on the left pane you will
see Disk Management. Right-click your CD ROM drive and change it to the appropriate drive letter.

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q307/8/44.ASP

Possible Solution: From Doug Knox – Microsoft MVP: Click Start, Run and type “control userpasswords2″ without the quotes, and hit enter.  Check the box to require a password.