Your not being clear...did you run sfc /scannow in safemode or not ? ?I press f8 and get in to Windows Advanced Menu, I click on Safe Mode..brings me to click on Windows XP Home Edition. It brinds up MULTI disk rdisk partition ect....   screen says safe mode the goes to wallpaper with the MOUSE pointer.

I cant run sfc ( i dont know what that is )  nor do I know what that is ..plus there is no scan now or start button.in safemode go to Start/Run then type in sfc /scannow and hit ENTER...After I get to safe mode ..certain files load up then goes to the wallpaper screen.  there is no "Start/Run then type in sfc /scannow and hit Enter..."Patio - She cant run any programs. The task bar and the start button are missing. Also, she cant even bring up task manager.

tinkerbell - Do you have your XP CD? If you don't have one don't worry, there's more than one way to fix your problem, but the XP CD would be the easiest. The original cd is at a friend of my son ( don' t know why) but he has one that was copied and it says"reinstalling cd microsoft windows xp home edition including service pack 2". 

Would that work? What next? Thanks for helping.What do I do now?Repair Install of XP

I suggest reading ALL of it especially the Warnings before starting and printing out a reference copy...

Done properly all your apps and DATA will be intact...
Done improperly everything will be GONE...but you will have a fresh install of XP.Now I'm puzzled.. We tried the disk we have and we get nothing... back to the wallpaper again. Are we doing something not right? You need to read thru those instructions...it's 5 pages.
It includes info on how to boot to a CD.JJ 3000     Said "' tinkerbell - Do you have your XP CD? If you don't have one don't worry, there's more than one way to fix your problem, but the XP CD would be the easiest. ''

If we don't have the cd ( which we have a copy and nothing happened) what other options we have?  You say there's more than one way to fix this . I'm open to anything right now.. My son said there were things on there he needs.Not sure what JJ had in mind...you are going to need a genuine XP CD sooner or later...
At this point it would seem to be sooner. My son went and got the cd and we did a repair and everything is back to normal. We never LOST anything that was on there. Thanks very much for all your help.

Excellent news...tell your Son Good Job ! !