Problems getting runtime environment
Background: Last week I'd downloaded a game from a site I thought was trustworthy -- and it may just be some glitch in the program. Virus scans turn up nothing. But about 3 minutes into the game, my screen gave a mosaic effect (not programmed into the game) - sound began sounding like a gatling gun and everything just froze in that condition. CTRL/ALT/DEL did nothing. I could not regain access to the computer regardless of what I tried. So I resorted to a forced power off (pulled the plug).
When I rebooted after a few minutes, the system had lost its boot drive and would just recycle through the boot sequence. Even attempting F8 to get to a Safe Mode did nothing.
After numerous attempts, I resorted to using the Windows 2000 boot CD. After some attempts, I was finally able to get the C: drive bootable again -- but everything that had been on my desktop was gone, though I could find the files on the drives.
It appears that the registry has been horribly corrupted in the process. As of now I have most of the stuff operating by using the tools in the various programs to tell the program where my files are located.
The problem remains in any attempt to use a program that utilizes Java Runtime Environment.The program indicates that this plugin is missing and attempts to install it. However the installation continues to FAIL. Even attempts at manual installation fail.
Any suggestions on how I can recover from this mess and get Java Runtime Environment restored?
In case it is relevant to this problem, I did find that in my Documents and Settings folder there are now TWO folders for my personal settings: ABCDEFG and ABCDEFG.ABCD-S1I2OQY. I've been afraid to attempt merging these because I have no clue which of these two have corrupted information. Both seem to be being accessed though not necessarily by the same program.
HELP! Please?
