Kimla said:
Hello,
Thank you for your help in this matter. I could not log on to windows 2
days ago. The welcome screen comes up and then I click on my account and
it
acts like it will log on but then flashes and underneath it says logging
off.
Anyway, so I read somewhere I need to reinstall windows xp with the cd. I
am in that process right now. In BIOS mode
What do you mean by "BIOS" mode? The BIOS is entirely independent of the
operating system, and if you are trying to get into the BIOS you are nowhere
near the OS. The BIOS itself doesn't even care if there is a hard disk.
it asks for my adm. password and
it will not accept it.
If the BIOS has a password, it is not related to the Windows passwords.
BIOS passwords are on the motherboard and apply whether there's a hard disk
with an OS - or not.
If your system has a BIOS password, you have other problems that should be
addressed. If it's a laptop, it may have to be sent to the manufacturer to
be reset.
In system set up mode I checked to see what it was
and it said no password selected. So I decided to go ahead and make a
password. But that did not work either.
Again, you need to be clear here. Windows passwords are not related in any
way to BIOS passwords.
I even shut the computer down for a
minute and still no.
Also, I was told that I would not lose my files and information if I did a
repair and that is what I am doing instead of reinstalling....
Repair installs very often *will not* fix what appear to be Windows
problems.
This is because many of the things that appear to be Windows problems are
actually problems in the registry or the user account itself, and the repair
install doesn't do much with the registry or the user accounts. That fact
is why repair installs don't cause you to lose installed programs, user
accounts, or data.
Considering where you are, and with respect, the knowledge that you have,
the best plan for you is to stop, find another XP system with plenty of
drive space, attach your hard disk to it, and back up all your data.
Even better is to also make an image of the drive, using something like the
Acronis TrueImage free 2-week trial version. If you need help doing this -
get it. This backup can take as much as a couple of hours, most of which
you don't have to pay attention to (have dinner, watch a DVD, occasionally
check the progress), and can save you large amounts of grief.
If you can get into your user account now, even in Safe Mode, try to export
all your mail settings and passwords, and back those up.
If you can get into the Administrator account, and if your version of XP is
Home you can only do this in Safe Mode (press F8 at startup), try creating
a new user account, then restart into that account. If that works, your
old user account is corrupt and you can just migrate the data from it.
From the screen where you select Safe Mode - after you press F8 - there's
also a "Last Known Good Configuration" option. Try that.
If these don't work, the fastest and most reliable repair may be to simply
reinstall cleanly - which will involve formatting the disk, which will erase
all of the data and settings as well. This is why you will back up now,
before you go any further.
An alternate approach is to remove the hard disk, put in a new one, do a
fresh install to that, and then - after Windows is working properly -
attach the old drive and copy your data over. Where I am, 80 gig hard disks
are around $45.
HTH
-pk
