Did you install any new hardware or software or did it not shut down properly?
There are a few things to try (I am not sure if they will work in XP, as I use 2000, but if your desperate, you can try them):
Possible Solution 1:
If your an Administrator, you can create a new account, and give the new account Administrator access. That would create a new profile for the new account. Then you can copy your documents from your old profile to your new one, and then delete your old profile (Delete the User), and then recreate it.
Possible Solution 2:
If software caused it, you can do a rollback which should restore the settings.
Possible Solution 3:
I don't know if Windows XP has this option (I use windows 2000, as I have never hadproblems with is), but you can create a new account, Login to your new account, Right click on My Computer > Properties and Click on the "User Profiles" Tab. Next Select your Profile (the one that is messed up), and try to copy it to your current profile, by clicking "Copy To" and select your new account. I am not sure if it would work or not, but what I do is I have 2 Admin Accounts and I copy the profile between the two accounts so if one gets messed up, I can go back to the good one and restore it to the account.
Possible Solution 4:
As you said, you can try the disk and see if that repairs it or not.
Possible Solution 5:
Create a New account, and copy all the main files in your messed up profile to your new one. (Just go into Documents and Settings) Find your Profile that is messed up, and copy the files you want to your new one (Like My Documents, Cookies, Favorites, ect...) The only downfall is programs installed to the previous user may or may not need to be reinstalled, if it is not installed for all users.
