Error message: windows cannot find

I have spent hours upon hours online trying to fix what initially was a back-up (which I still havent found a solution for). I thought last week that I had and my back-ups where listed fine, come to find out they all failed and were empty. I went to find a solution, I done scans, checks and more scans to no resolve. I found a Windows forum yesterday that said that I can go into the registry and delete profiles.

The instrutions I followed:

The system cannot find the file specified. (0x80070002)

This problem is due to one or more profiles under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows

NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList with missing ProfileImagePath.

To check whether you have missing profiles:

  1.   Open regedit, navigate to the above registry key. (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList). Expand the list
    
  2.   Click on each of the profiles listed. The first 3 profiles should have ProfileImagePath value of
    

%SystemRoot%\System32\Config\SystemProfile,

%SystemRoot%\ServiceProfiles\LocalService, and

%SystemRoot%\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService

respectively.

  1.   Starting from the 4th profile, the ProfileImagePath should contain path to the user profiles on your machine, such as C:\users\Christine
    
  2.   If one or more of the profile has no profile image, then you have missing profiles.
    

To work around this, delete the profile in question (Caution: The registry contains critical settings that are necessary for your system to function properly. Take extra caution while making changes)

  1.   First, export the ProfileList key for safekeeping. (Right click on the key, choose “Export”, and save it to the desktop.)
    
  2.   Right click on the profile in question, choose delete.
    
  3.   Try backup again.</p>
    

The copies that I had made of the profiles (I made a copy of all of the per these instructions) wont work now, When I try to merge the one I delted back I get another

Error message: windows cannot find 'C:\Users\Leanne\Desktop\key4.reg' Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

My restore point would not work,

Error message: windows cannot find 'c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe' Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

So I was on AboutTech.com's website with information about the Reuva software. I followed the instructions to run the portable program after downloading. When I try to run the program I get an

Error message: windows cannot find 'c:\Uswers\Leanne\Downloads\rcsetup151.exe' Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

I have concerns about having to reinstall Vista's operating system and trying to get all the updates (yet another thing that stopped working in the past month) But I am willing to do it if I can get a back up of my hard drive onto my external HDD. I have over 13 years worth of pictures that were on both but now my back up is gone, if my system crashes I loose everything.

Any and all help would be so wonderful, sorry for being so long winded.

Thanks in Advance

Have you run a system file check?

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66978-system-files-sfc-command.html

Follow the ''Here's How'' bit and make sure you run it as admin (Elevated command prompt)