Angus said:
Hi
Had a Windows XP Pro machine behaving perfectly normally untill Saturday.
On Saturday it boots up, get menu prompting to boot into Safe mode etc.
No
matter what selection you make, it reboots itself. So you can't even see
what the error is.
Is there a way to boot up with XP CD and run a restore? Is that my best
option? How to do?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Angus
Angus:
The very first thing you should do is to connect the problem HDD as a
secondary HDD in a working machine and hopefully access its contents so that
you could at least copy off whatever data is important to you from the
problem HDD . Since you obviously have a working machine at your disposal
could you install the problem drive in that machine to do so? Or if you have
a USB external enclosure, install the HDD in that device and connect it to a
functioning PC to undertake the copying of data function.
The preceding assumes that there is data on the HDD that's important to you
and for which you need a backup. If there's no data on that drive that's
particularly important to you then you could forgo the preceding and take
your chances that there won't be further corruption of the system as you
undertake this or that process to restore your system. Bear in mind that
nobody has ever complained that he or she had a backup of their data.
Following the above, reinstall the problem HDD in its machine as the primary
drive.
Have you tried booting to the XP installation CD and were you able to get to
the opening setup screen? If so, try accessing the Recovery Console see -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058
and enter the chkdsk /r command. Perhaps you'll be lucky and the chkdsk
process will correct any existing OS corruption to he point where the drive
will become bootable & functional once again.
Assuming the chkdsk command does not correct the problem, it probably would
be wise to run a Repair install of the XP OS as Mark recommends. I assume
you've never done this before so here's some general info on the process...
Undertaking a Repair install of the OS is a relatively straightforward
process. It would be roughly akin to making a fresh install of the OS, but
in nearly every case your existing programs & user-created data would be
retained. Notice I said "nearly". While it would be a rather rare situation
where data would be lost or corrupted as a result of the Repair install, and
as unlikely as it may be, it *could* happen. That's why I recommended the
process I described in my opening paragraph.
Again, it's a relatively rare event that a loss or corruption of data will
occur even when the Repair install is unsuccessful, but it *can* happen. So
I want you to be aware of this.
There are a number of websites that contain step-by-step instructions for
undertaking a Repair install. Let me assure you that it's not a difficult
process and not terribly time-consuming. It's roughly similar to making a
fresh install of the XP OS. If you do a Google search on "XP repair
install", you'll be pointed to many of these sites. Here are a few more
besides the one Mark provided you with...
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=138
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxppro/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm
Assuming the Repair install is successful, you should use your A-V program
to immediately check out your PC for any virus infestation. Also, you will
need to download/install *all* the MS critical updates since SP2. (I'm
assuming that if you undertake this Repair install of the XP OS, you will be
doing so with a XP installation CD that contains SP2). That, of course, is
one of the downsides re undertaking a Repair install in that it's usually an
onerous task to download all the Critical Updates from MS especially if you
have a dialup phone connection rather than broadband.
Anyway, give this some thought if you can't get your system back to a
functional state any other way.
Just one other thing...
It's conceivable that you're dealing with some hardware-type problem here
and not just a corruption of the OS. Where a hardware-type problem is the
culprit in cases like the one you describe, it's usually the HDD that's
defective although it's entirely possible some other major component of your
system may be at the root of the problem you're experiencing. In any event,
it's possible that you may be dealing with a defective HDD so it probably
would be wise at this point to check out the HDD with a HDD diagnostic
utility you can (usually) download from the website of the disk's
manufacturer. It's very easy to use - the downloaded program allows you to
create either as a bootable floppy disk or bootable CD containing the HDD
diagnostic program. So give that some consideration.
Anna
