XP System Restore not working

[coyote]

I have a 5 year + old Dell with XP installed. I have recently tried several tweaks to the system as recommended from the book "Hacking Windows XP" and after changes to the Start Up and System Boot files, I not only lost, not only my DSL connection, but was unable to change the date on System Restore or change the month. Note: after disabling some of the unwanted boot files and then re-booting the PC, I found that all of the System Files were disabled......don't understand that.
This is my first time with making these types of modifications.....guess I'm in over my head. Can anyone help?

[Unequaled]

You seems to have corrupted your Windows XP with your experiments. The only solution for your problem is to Either do a Windows Recovery by using the windows recovery disc and if that did not help you in any way then most probably you will have to format your system and then perform clean installation of Windows XP operating system in your Dell laptop. Once you have installed Windows XP in your laptop, also install all the necessary drivers in your laptop using the drivers CD.