Mary:
Assuming you've tried the "fixes" detailed on the MS links that Brian pointed you
to and they were of no help, your best bet at this juncture is to try a Repair
install of the XP OS.
Assuming you have a non-OEM-branded XP installation CD at your disposal and
not merely an OEM recovery CD or recovery partition situation you might consider
running a Repair install of the XP OS at this point in time in view of your other
futile attempts to get the system up & running.
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.
So if there are any programs and/or other data on your present drive that are
absolutely crucial to you and you could not tolerate their loss, then I would
strongly suggest that before undertaking this Repair install operation that you
first either make a "clone" of your existing HDD (using a disk imaging program) or,
if that's not practical, install the HDD in another machine as a secondary HDD so
that you can pull off whatever data you want onto some removable media, e.g., flash
drive, CD, etc.
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...
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm#RI
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
ccur, check out the HDD with the diagnostic