gabo1985

Hello, I'm having a major issue with my computer right now. Let me give you as much detailed info as I can. I am running a Gateway 6020GZ laptop with Windows Vista Home Basic, I have a 1.40 GHz Intel Celeron processor, 503 MB of RAM, 32 bit OS.Last night my girlfriend brought over her crappy HP D1420 printer without any software, so I ended up downloading a software bundle for that specific model off of the HP website. I installed it on my laptop, the software installed about 4 or 5 different HP printing programs. (Picture viewers, reshapers, etc.) To make a long story short, the printer didn't work, so I decided to throw it away, and remove the HP software I installed. I went to START, hit the Programs folder, clicked on the HP folder, and uninstalled those HP programs. (Since I don't have ANY HP hardware at all, I knew I had no need for them)Everything seems to be going fine, then, when the laptop reboots, I log into my secondary user account (I hardly ever use my admin account for security purposes) and everything is wiped out. Let me explain a bit further, my background photo was gone (which didn't make me freak out at first) my icons are all gone from the desktop, when I hit the START button, all my recently used programs are gone, but most importantly, when I click on the Programs folder, ALL THE PROGRAMS ARE GONE.So then I decide to check my ard drive, I can access My Computer, and when brought up, it says 34.8GB free of 49.0I'm looking through the hard drive THOROUGHLY and I cannot find any of my old programs. So in a desperate attempt to quickly fix my laptop, I try to do a system restore. Luckily from a previous issue I had with my computer I had setup to do restore points often, so I had a couple of spots to restore and I chose the one from a day ago. When I try to restore, it comes up to the initial Vista blue/green screen that says "Initializing system restore" or something like that, and it stays there. I thought maybe it was going to take a while, so last night I left the laptop on all night doing it's thing, and this morning when I wake up, NOTHING.So I then try to log on to my Admin account, it says the account cannot be found!!!! ( I don't understand how I can log on to my LIMITED account, but my actual ADMIN account I cannot)And the last thing I did before posting on here was look up the Programs and Features on my laptop, it shows alot of my programs that were installed before this whole thing happened, STILL to be installed on my laptop, but I don't know where to find them.

Last but not least, I do NOT have any kind of antivirus, or antispyware program, yes, I know I SHOULD have one, but I don't.

If there is any tech out there that has seen this issue before, or that right off the bat knows what the hecks going on, PLEASE PLEASE let me know ASAP. I have pictures from my tour in Iraq last year with friends of mine that I will never see again, and I must get everything back. I AM prepared for the worst, but I'm praying for the best. Thanks alot for everyones support, hope to hear from someone soon.


-Gabe