win xp cant load on my pc
 

I am currently on my laptop as my pc won't boot. Here is the situation, while browsing facebook the PC rebooted for an unknown reason. now when booting after the windows xp flash screen the computer reboots and loops back through the reboot process never getting past the xp logo. I am able to acceess the bios and all hardware is detected.

At this point I suspect critical windows files somehow have become corrupted (but i'm not sure). I have attempted a recovery install from the xp install disc but the c drive is not detected by recovery console. I am unsure how to proceed and any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Can we get a little background on this computer? The XP cd not seeing the drive may be due to the machine having an array controller that XP doesn't have a driver for. If that's the case you can load the driver manually during the recovery operation.

Instead of the CD/DVD boot, try booting to safemode. If it won't do that, then you are correct, something is hosed in the System32 directory. Pull the drive and put it in an external USB case and access it with the Laptop. You can then examine the System32 directory and try to copy files fro the Laptop (if it is also XP).

A a bare minimum, you will have access to your data files and can copy them off before doing anything drastic. I suggest this be your first action, even before a chkdsk.

Scott, the mobo is an msi g31 tm-p21 with intel g31 and intel ich7 chipsets also forgot to mention that os is win xp 64bit. is it possible that recovery console does not have the drivers to recognize the ide drive?

James, it does the same thing trying to boot in safe mode, last known good and normal. I will put the drive in an external case and back up the data, definitely a good idea!

That mainboard does not have an array controller. So this is a bad sign. Get your data off quickly in the method that Red Beard mentioned.

If you can get into the bios check your disk controller settings or any setting that has to do with the hdd, make sure they are all correct. Then try to get to the recovery console again and running chkdsk a couple times should clear it up, usually does the trick for boot problems.

If he's getting a partial boot (see's the XP logo), the disk controller is probably OK. It sounds like a corrupted sector. It's a "stuff happens" thing.

I've heard that if you type "format c:" and hit enter it helps ;)




legal disclaimer, doan do it. if you do it's your fault and not mine.

That's why I said to run chkdsk specifically "chkdsk c: /f" that goes through and repairs bad sectors and has fixed many boot issues for me.

The reason I said check in the bios everything about the hdd is because he said it wasn't recognized in the recovery console and the bios screwing up a setting is usually the culprit of that.

I'd check the hd first for errors If it checks out okay, then try and get data off. If not okay, then make a decision wether you want to try and get the data off or have a shop do it.

Ok guys sorry for taking so long but I have been busy with work. I have backed up the drive and for some reason am now able to see the c drive from windows recovery (Idk why all I did was copy the drive to a 2nd external using the laptop and then put it back in the pc). However, after selecting the appropriate options to run windows recovery and admin password etc... I am taken to a dos prompt and I have no idea what to do from there. Windows support lists all the commands but how do I find out which files may be corrupted and need to be reinstalled? I'm not sure what to do at this point so if someone could help with the commands I need to input in order to determine which files need to be replaced and how to replace them I would appreciate it. Thanks again, Jonathon.

Run "chkdsk" and see if comes back with anything. After that you can make the decision to run it in actual "fix" mode "chkdsk /f"

I'll say it again... My advice, check the HD first! If nothing is wrong with it, then run chkdsk. Running first may cause further problems. Even if it does manage to fix errors on the HD, if it is bad, it'll crash again and probably for good.

You most likely are on borrowed time weeks ago. Save your data now and get a new drive + a backup drive. Drives die, everyday.

what Slowdave says.