that is odd.. if you lost a hard drive i would just start fresh to begin with.. hopefully you have backed up all of your data before the failure..

welcome  to the site,not sure what your O S is but if I remember right win 98 did this because it changed the name of your files......if your running Windows XP it has a repair option when you reinstall that should clear your problem,let us know what happens:):)I'm guessing its XP because it has some other problems in the add/remove window like  blank areas.....there is a neat program that I have used for many years that will also remove them from the window (its not uninstalling) this software must be used with caution because you can really nuke your system and create a much bigger problem, and there is a novice console you can use...so here it is ....AGAIN USE CAUTION, have copy of your registry.....you can edit the name of pgm if you want or delete it,which is a better choice because I think the files are gone because there is no size next to the programs..
http://www.xteq.com      x-setup is what you want no spyware and it free

  Microwave©

Thank you for all the support!
I will see later what i can do when i get some free time...

um...why not just back up all ur imporant files and reformat?  then you can just configure it back to how it was and put all the saved files back in

plus, reformat=fresh start

fresh starts are always nice, except for having to install all your drivers and software again, but hey, i think its worth it

I think a FDISK an Format would be your only option!

How about buying a bigger HDD an fitting that?

That way you can keep your data on your old HDD an use you new one for you OS!

did u try contacting microsoft tech support? ill bet theyd say to close all the windows and reboot and see if that helped. that all they ever tell me...

The repair option in any version of windows is not very useful.  All that is basically happening is it restores a few essential files if they are missing and pulls a backup of the registry out of a directory.  And I don't even think that XP Pro does this from the setup disk anymore, you have to run recovery console and do it manually, and if you don't have a recent system restore/backup then you end up rolling back to first boot...and may end up having to install drivers again.

Here's what you can do if you have the original disk that you installed the OS from.

Pop the disk in.
click start-->run type "CMD" press return.
from command line type: SFC /SCANNOW

Next, try installing something, then try uninstalling it.  Install/Uninstall work?  No?  You're pretty much screwed then.
Yes?  Good, that just means the programs that are currently installed are missing their logs or something along those lines.  If you're feeling really brave, you can go to program files and delete them.  If you wanted to be a "REAL COOL GUY" you could unregister the DLL's by hand using regsvr32 -u from command line.

Then fire up registry editor "regedit" from start-->run

Go to HKLM\Software and start blowing away the keys that pertain to the software that you just deleted.

As mentioned about 100 times before, your best bet is to reinstall the OS entirely.  If you don't have another hard disk...and you don't have a CD-Burner...which, hell...I haven't seen a computer without a CD-R in years...then what you could do is sign up for a bunch of free email accounts and email all the files to yourself.  Reinstall the computer and go out and get the files.

Remember...programs can be replaced, files cannot.  The difference?  A file is the output of a program...like a word doc or a spreadsheet or mom and dads tax files.