ok yes the glaringly obvious was my first mistake (installing itunes that is).

After reboot it wouldn't start up, freezes while loading. No safemode, no command prompt. Tried repair install, during repair install got an error message regarding" itunes.msi not compatible ... service pack..." and still same problem. currently i'm in the middle of gleaning out all itunes related files form the hd.

any suggestions?

So it can boot right......but till wer?

No use doing a repair cause the root of the problem has nothing to do with OS.

The msi file is a windows installer package and it would be required to complete the installation.

Hopefully you can boot up to safe mode then your problem would be solve by removing the itune and not to do a restore.

There is also a windows cleanup tool that completely removes application from registry but since you cant boot up to start, this is useless at the moment.

Keep us update of your happenings.