My computer is refusing to boot. I get as far as the Windows splash
screen,
then the machine falls back and tries to reboot again. It's an endless
cycle. Same thing in safe mode - won't boot there either. I tried to
perform the corrupted registry recovery method described in MS Knowledge
Base
Article 307545. When I get to the Recovery console after booting from the
Windows CD ROM and try the "md tmp" command, the response i get is
"access
denied", and I am unable to copy the registry recovery files from the CD
ROM
to the C volume.
You don't copy any files from the XP installation CD to the hard drive.
First do you have a full and complete backup of important data on the drive?
If not do that first. There are several ways to get this done.
1. Install the drive as a slave drive in another XP or Windows 2000
computer and copy the data if it's readable.
2. Install the drive in an external drive housing and connect that through
USB to another XP or Windows 2000 computer and copy the data if it's
readable.
3. Boot with a Bart's PE disk and burn the data to CD or flash drive
4. Boot with a Linux live distro such as Knoppix. Then copy the data to
flash drive or if there are two CD drives, one of which is a burner, burn
the data to CD using the supplied k3b program.
5. Take it to a computer tech who is knowledgeable in data recovery and
have them backup the data.
After the data is backed up run a chkdsk / r on the drive. This can be done
when it's installed as a slave drive or from the Bart's PE disk or if it's
installed as the boot drive, boot from the XP installation CD, take the
first R for recovery to enter the Recovery Console. Enter a number for the
windows installation, normally 1, then enter the password for the built in
Administrator account. For XP Pro this is the password assigned to it when
the OS was installed. For XP Home normally it's blank so just hit enter.
At the command prompt do chkdsk /r.
You could also download a drive diagnostic utility from the hard drive
manufacturer's web site. This will create a bootable floppy or CD. Boot
from that and run the diagnostics.
If the drive checks ok but chkdsk /r doesn't get it to boot try a repair
install:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm