Help needed!

I'm running an old Pentium 4 Gateway and last night I ran a program downloaded from PC World that could recover deleted FILES or permanently delete files. This is the app: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,23108-order,1-page,1-c,alldownloads/description.html

I had the program permanently delete all the files it could recover from my recycle bin. Well I left it on overnight since it was a lengthy process and when I came back to the comp in the morning, it was sitting on a black screen with "Operating System ERROR" in the top left corner. Now when I ATTEMPT to boot the computer, it will not go any further than the Gateway Logo bootscreen. I cannot enter safe mode...and the only button that I have found to work is F1...which is supposed to take me to "Change System Settings" but just takes me to a black screen that I cannot type anything on.

Any Idea on what I did this time?!? and How I can fix this? Anyy help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
RobCan you even get to the menu where you SELECT Safe Mode, and have you tried a system restore?



Sounds like a reinstall may be in your future.What flavor of Windows are you running ? ?

And do you have a shiny CD that says Microsoft all over it ? ?XP.

When I insert the XP Home Edition CD, nothing occurs.

well I waited a couple of hours and powered the computer back on with the XP Cd in it....it is now running windows setup.

Hopefully this is all I will have to do.