Registry cannot load the hive FIXED but lead to LOSS of everything :(

So, my first problem was the BSOD:

the registry cannot load the hive file:registry file failure
system root\system32\config\software

After restarting, attempting to start in Safe mode, and looking through many, many help sites, I used the info from http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_sys32.htm and did this:

I started from my XP CD-Rom and went into Recovery Console. Then, I typed the following commands:

cd system32\config
dir software
ren software software.bak
copy c:\windows\repair\software
exit

This seemed to solve my problem. The blue screen was gone and Windows started normally. Except that everything I had ever saved or downloaded to my computer was gone. Gone! Help! I don't know how to get it back, and I'm sure it's there somewhere because I didn't delete anything. Any ideas?

Hello natushke. Actually you have made a mistake. You said you processed just one file, whereas there use to be a set of files which you need to keep together. Hence what you need to do is along with the "software" you also need to include the others located inside the repair directory.

I think the very first thing you need to very first is System Restore. Just go to Start > Programs > Accessories > Systems Tools > System Restore and restore your computer to a date before the problem started. Apart from that i can suggest you to go through the MS KB describing How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting. Click here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

If that doesn't helps, check this: How to recover the damaged user profile in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555473

Okay, that makes sense. But I'm not sure how to go about doing that. Would you mind explaining?

This is so strange. Thank you for suggesting to look in the Documents and Settings folder--I did find all of my files there (thank goodness!).

However, I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out how to get all of the programs I've installed and downloaded back on my desktop. Basically, at this point, my desktop looks like it did the day I bought it. I tried the Microsoft article on How to recover a damaged profile, but I wasn't able to go through all of the steps. I'll try searching around the Microsoft site some more, but if anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know!

Things keep getting worse for me, and I think it might be time to just chuck this computer.

This time, I used the "How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting" article from Microsoft (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/) and was disappointed to find that I apparently don't have a system file in my repair folder (c:\windows\repair\system). This happened during the following command:
copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
The system cannot find the file specified.
So, I got stuck on the first step and now have a new problem:

Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

The Microsoft article has me going in circles, and I'm not sure where to go from here. I really botched things up. :/

According to the error and situation described, to me it seems like your file system is crashing. Did you tried running a CHKDSK or a defrag? If not give it a try. Apart from this you may also be experiencing an infection or perhaps simple hardware failure - "perhaps". What you can do is, if you have the XP installation with you, insert the same, restart the computer and perform System Repair. It will surely fix all the problems.

I have been using the XP installation disk to attempt to repair, but I keep getting stuck on that one file that I apparently don't have. There's no way for me to check to see if it's misplaced, if that's even possible, so I'm just a sitting duck.