YIKES....Erased my BINARY VALUE?

[MomNEEDShelp]

MY windows 7 pc (HP Slimline - About 2 yrs old) was in the middle of a simple update and froze up. I had to pull the plug to shut pc after a full day of it being frozen. Anyway, went to Google to find a fix and someone recommended F8 upon start-up and then to start up in safe mode with networking. (That is what woked for them)  Anyway, I did this and erased my Binary Value! I have come to discover this means I erased my operating system. (I am not technical)

Anyway, I spoke to my cable provider thinking they could help and they could not, of course. Although, the tech rep I got said all I had to do was get a Windows 7 disc and toss it in my pc and it would start to re-install itself. I thought "WOW", that is easy. Then I spoke to someone else and they said it's fairly difficult unless you knw what you are doing. (Backing up files had to be done and other stuff) YIKES!!

So, this is my last attempt before I either call Microsoft back and give them $149 to have them write me a new Binary Value....or try Best Buy's geek squad. (Nt sure what they will charge)
My question.... Is there an easy way to re-install Windows without being very pc savy OR is this a job for the pros???

[truenorth]

Please tell us Exactly what happens when you turn on the computer up to and including the point where you have no further changes.Include all messages that appear on your screen (if any). Have you tried repeated clicking on F8 when the computer first boots to try and enter "safe mode"? Depending what removed even this may not be possible.But you need to try it and tell us the results. Do you have any discs related to your operating system such as a recovery disc?Ultimately i urge you NOT to try to deal with Microsoft at the initial stages (unless it is to purchase a recovery disc). If it evolves that you need to use outside help talk to your friends and family to see if they have had any satisfactory help from a locally available computer technician that they can recommend. Any competent computer repair shop should be able to get you going again. I don't know how far you are prepared to go or how relevant it is but you may want to try and retrieve any data on the HDD BEFORE you try a recovery (particularly done by someone else) as you could lose all the personal data on the HDD in the process. There is available software (some free) that can recover from computer failures but it is a little premature to suggest any until we have a more complete picture of what is happening with your computer.truenorth

[patio]

What exactly does erasing a binary value mean and where did you read up on this ? ?

[techsupport]

Yes, tell us what happened to the PC after you restarted.

I think you edited some entries in registries, because you mentioned about binary values.
If it is the problem, there are some tools to fix registries to their default.