Registry Gaffe... advice please

dunno if anyone can help with this, on one of my main PC's I was just having a clearout and general optimize, ran a registry cleaning prog System Mechanic that I normally use with no troubles and also uninstalled a few programs I dont use to free up space.

I then went to reboot - after the bios has loaded, i get a text message flash up "NTDETECT failed" .. and the system goes back to a reboot from bios. perpetual cycle.

bit of a hassle... must have accidentaly done something to the registry when I cleaned it. Now I DO have a backup of everything that I cleared out of the registry, but I need to load windows to get at it.

I've tried F8 into boot from safe mode, but still get same NTDETECT failure in a safe boot and go back to the reboot problem.

Have tried booting from XP CDROM... which works, I can load a console up, but its over ten years plus since i've tooled around with a DOS console and I cant remember my way around, do you have any suggestions? is it possible to load windows normal interface from CD so I can restore the registry from my backup? any alternative suggestions?

Now, as a last resort, I also have a 2nd disk drive in there which has windows on it too. i can open the case and switch the master and slave around on the jumpers and boot from the other HD but I'm not sure I can restore the registry on the main drive if its running as a slave.

Comments and suggestions from you tech savvy T2W users appreciated.

have you tried the repair option on the cd?

found this with a google search http://www.computerforums.org/archive/index.php/t-19936

yes, i'm just trying that now... dont know why i didnt think of googling it to start with! doh!

Have you found a solution for it yet? I am sure I had this problem about a year or so ago, and fixed it in the end, but off hand can't remember how.. think it was changing the cables on the motherboard, but if you can't find the solution I will try a bit harder to get the answer!

I tried the BOOTFIX commands from the repair console in DOS and a few other suggested fixes with no luck.

I'm currently going through the repair process from the XP Cd... seems to have practically reinstalled windows though, so i guess I'll find out in a few minutes whether I've done the right thing (!!)

Okay, let me know how you get on.
If it doesn't work let me know what you have tried so far

From MS

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q242112/

ok, I ran the XP CD repair installation feature. looks like it reinstalled the base platform of windows, because autoupdate is now reinstalling SP2 and all the other patches. Good part is that Windows boots normally again.

Bad part is that I've lost all my audio... i've reinstalled the drivers and run troubleshooter, checked all the settings but to no avail... aaargh! upsetting windows is like knocking dominoes over as far as creating a cascade of faults goes.

Arbitrageur, after fixing some computer problem I discovered there was no audio —
the sound card's 'C-Media Mixer' volume button was OFF !