missing biosinfo.inf, access denied

I recently ran some security checkup software from Verizon to find
viruses and spyware. After checking every file on my hard drive, it
came up with a list of viruses and spyware. I stupidly proceeded with
the option to delete them all. After the delete, a message that the
system had to restart came up and the XP home system has not been able
to boot since then.
The system will not come up in the safe mode or any other option.
I found the original Windows XP CD that came with the Dell and am able
to get to the recovery console. I tried fixmbr, fixboot and ran chkdsk
/r, all to no avail. I tried to repair the Windows installation but
many files would not copy. I skipped all of the ones that would not
copy and got a new error on booting that states that the biosinfo.inf
file is missing. I checked the windows\inf\ directory and sure enough
that file is not there. I found it on the CD in I386\ and tried to copy
it into c:\windows\inf\ but got an "access denied" message.
I tried using the SET AllowAllPaths = true command, but the XP Home
would not permit me to run it.

I went to the Dell site and followed all of the procedures that they
had to restore to the system to a date previous to the delete, but that
got me no where.
I tried booting off of a Knopppix disk to try to backup the data,
before trying anything more radical, but could not copy any files using
Knoppix either.

I am running out of ideas. I really do not want to lose the data that
is on this hard drive. Does anyone have any suggestions on how best to
proceed?

Thanks.


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Joe Usoff
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