XP will not boot

[iandonnachie]

Have had problems with XP on my time computer, here is where I am.
Loaded reload CD this seemed to be successful, as I checked C drive and all seemed ok, however I cannot get the system booted. What have I missed out on?
I am a novice on computers, good at golf

Ian

[mylanta]

How did you check "C" drive? Exactly what does that mean.
Can you give us hardware description as I assume this is a branded pc and tell us age of hardware, especially hard drive.
You loaded XP (I assume) back on hard drive and all seemed to go well but it would not boot? Do you have or can you borrow an XP cd and boot to the cd drive with it in (change bios so cd drive boots prior to hard drive) and choose R for recovery Console. Choose 1 for hard drive then if asking for admin password just click cursor in space and click nothing hit enter...then at prompt type in fixboot and hit enter then fixmbr and hit enter.
Then see if it will boot.

[mommalina]

Have had problems with XP on my time computer, here is where I am.
:welcome: to our forum, Ian! I'm sure some of our moderators and savvy
members will chime in here shortly to assist you.

I am a novice on computers, good at golf
As far as being a novice on computers, you've come to the right place. As a
fellow senior citizen, I can truly empathize with you--I was weaned from
typewriter to computer by some of the guys here and have reached the
newbie-plus, work-in-progress stage .. :)

Ian, we encourage and appreciate suggestions and comments about our
board. Please post them in the KH Feedback forum for the immediate
attention of our Administrator and Super Moderators.

Our members would be delighted to also have you join us in our
Wednesday Night KH Computer Help Desk Paltalk chatroom, from
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Ian, try to join us in our chatroom if you can. I know the time zone
differences make it diffult. But if you happen to be up at that hour or can't
sleep, check in with us. The camaraderie is great! .. :tea:

Again, welcome aboard, Ian .. :yo:


Lina

[dbarrow]

Welcome to the forums!

We have covered this issue in numerous detailed posts here.
I would suggest you SEARCH the forums for BOOT and REPAIR and check some of the resulting posts.
You will find detailed information on REPAIR from a no-boot situation including instructions on using the REPAIR CONSOLE from the XP install cd and doing REPAIR INSTALL from the XP cd. There are also posts on RECOVERY, LAST KNOWN GOOD, SAFE MODE.
Many contain links to appropriate MSKB articles.

[Guest110]

Hello there from me.. excellent choice of user name .. my name is Donna

[iandonnachie]

Thanks for your comments much appreciated

I checked the HD by using a win 98se start up which gave me an A prompt which I changed to C and looked at the dir, I only have a XP professional CD I was running home edition.which was preloaded on the computer, I only have the reload cd which I used to load the os back to HD.The pro version came from my daughter who had bought this one and registered to use on three computers.

Ian

[qldit]

Good Morning Ian, be careful running different systems disks and expecting any fix, this could really confuse the existing system.
The actual boot process is initiated at switch-on, where a set of instructions hidden in the motherboard CMOS, direct the machine to the first section of the hard drive, this gives further instructions on how the boot will be accomplished to get further bootable information elsewhere on the hard drive.
Any impediment along that stream can cause "no boot".

A viral or malware corruption, a hard drive physical impediment and numerous other errors including low voltage can create this effect.

The best method of analysis is to follow a path of ensuring various elements are operating properly to obtain a fix.

Collection of evidence prior to the failure often is assistive, for instance were you downloading shared files, what kind of antivirus system were you running and was there any problem apparent prior to the problem, like the clock needing to be reset repeatedly or repeated blue screens showing.

Repairing a malware loaded machine often requires a complete hard drive to be cleaned and inspected with a complete system reload.

As Momma suggests you might attend the 9PM US Eastern time Kicken Forum.
If you have a mic, you can discuss your problem with a team of interested techs and get some more positive assistance.

Cheers, qldit.

[kern]

I only have a XP professional CD I was running home edition.which was preloaded on the computer, I only have the reload cd which I used to load the os back to HD.The pro version came from my daughter who had bought this one and registered to use on three computers.

Ian

Ian,
You cannot 'reload' XP on top of itself, nor can you install a different version of XP on top of a previous version, or use a 'reload(restore)' cd from another pc, without ending up with a hosed system.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but sounds like the 'reload' cd you refer to is a recovery/restore cd. If it is AND it came with YOUR pc, you may be able to use it to reinstall the 'factory installed software' that was on your pc.

[Tortanick]

The first thing you should do is try to backup you're data, do this before you try to fix anything.

The easiest way would be to get a Linux Live CD and a USB hard drive, A Live CD contains an entire operating system that boots from the CD drive so you can use that to copy all you're stuff to the USB hard drive.

I've never actually done that myself, but PeteF uses puppy Linux for this. Looking at the how too videos on the puppy website it looks very easy.

Instructions:
1) download and burn you're own puppy linux. ISOrecorder (http://freewarewiki.pbwiki.com/IsoRecorder) is a very easy tool for burning. You can get a puppy iso here (ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/puppy-2.14-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso)

2) put the iso in the damaged computers drive, then reboot. During the bootup it should say press fx for the boot menu, press it and select boot from CDrom.

3) on the puppy desktop double click drives (with the usb stick icon)

4) plug in you're usb hard drive.

5) in the drive manager window, mount both the hard drive and the usb hard drive. that should open windows to each of them, if not click rox to manually open a window. If you get the option mount the hard drive read only.

6) start dragging files across.

Pete, did I miss anything?

[iandonnachie]

thanks
my comp is in a mess,I tried to reload on another HD which I had formatted, I just can't get it going, I tried win 98se and it loaded ok, Ithoughtit oo much coincidence for both drives to be faulty. problem is, as it is a time machine getting help is almost impossible. I guess I will have to take the beast into a repair shop.

Ian