System32 repair now no accesss to user account

To make a long story short, my sytem32/config/sys file got corrupted during a motherboard install. I had to fix according to Microsoft guidelines (See proceedure http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545) on their website which involved deleting and using restore points from Windows Volume Information file which were also updated so as not to have any older files.
So now I have the following issues:
1. User account does not seem to exist after boot up although my old software and files ares still visible. Now its just Adminstrator and Owner.
2. Although I had SP2, Windows now thinks I am on SP1 and wants me to activate.
All at the same time, everything is quite unstable and "windows has recovered from a serious error messages" abound.
Question: Is there any way out of this mess by going back and trying to find my old user account?

 

I wouldn't encourage you to spend much time trying to repair that system further. Just get your important data backed up and make a clean install of XP.

In MS own words describing the recovery that you did:

 

What I see.

You installed a new MotherBoard and allow the system to boot to it the first time. That don't work. I tried it.

Also the Restore point would not be correct as they may not contain the new HARDWARE changes.

Was the old board onboard or plugin cards for audio, maybe Network etc. ? If they were then they would be different also. Even Plugin cards might not be the same. Expecially if any were changed.

I have changed MBs ( in fact whole machines ) twice using 98SE. But I DID NOT allow it to boot to the HD the first time. I booted to the SUD and reinstall 98SE. NO PROBLEMS.

If that would work with XP I do not know. But I am quite sure that once you have SP2 installed any repairs etc. MUST be done using it.

I went through this with a Friend of mine on the phone. He MADE VERY sure that I had the SP2 CD before he would even discuss any further steps. He even had me go so far as to make sure that the machine would boot to it from a POWER OFF state.

I echo the reply by surferdude2

BillyBob