Cannot boot - what more can I do?

[Deon H]

Hi there,
for the past 48 hours I am trying to get my XP Prof PC to boot again.
I have managed to boot from the XP CD and chose the Recovery option. I then
did a FIXBOOT which did not help. I also did a Fixmbr, none of it fixed the
problem.

Problem is that the boot-process runs up to the screen where it displays the
bios info and then re-boots, till that screen where Windows has to show
next, end then re-bootd again.

Problem is that I cannot loose any data. What more can I do?
I also tried to re-install Windows, but at a point it wants to format my
HDD.

Regards,
Deon

 

[Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)]

You do have backups of your important information - right? Because, the
repair install that is recommended in this case, while usually safe for
existing information, is not perfect. Example: if the install program sees
the existing partition as damaged it will force you to reformat the
partition before continuing.

Maybe it is time for a 3rd party "file recovery" program (I use EasyRecovery
Professional from www.ontrack.com) or a data recovery service (expensive).
Search for them using Google.

 

[CWatters]

When you booted from CD were you able to explore your HD? If you were then
backup data that way before doing anything.

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----
Hi there,
for the past 48 hours I am trying to get my XP Prof PC to boot again.
I have managed to boot from the XP CD and chose the Recovery option. I then
did a FIXBOOT which did not help. I also did a Fixmbr, none of it fixed the
problem.

Problem is that the boot-process runs up to the screen where it displays the
bios info and then re-boots, till that screen where Windows has to show
next, end then re-bootd again.

Problem is that I cannot loose any data. What more can I do?
I also tried to re-install Windows, but at a point it wants to format my
HDD.

Regards,
Deon


.
the hardware bios screen is unrelated to os so rebooting

at that is a hardware issue not a software issue,data can
be recovered by removing the hard drive and slaving to a
working bootable computer and copying off the data.

this system has a hardware problem and you are wasting
your time tshooting the software.

 

[Deon H]

Hi,
When hitting the R for the Recovery Console, I get the C: prompt.
When typing dir and enter, I get this message:

An error occurred during directory enumeration.

Does this mean I have to format?

Regards,
Deon

 

[Deon H]

Hi,
maybe I didn't put it correctly, but it reboots AFTER the bios display,
where XP normally begins booting.

Deon

 

[Alex Nichol]

When hitting the R for the Recovery Console, I get the C: prompt.
When typing dir and enter, I get this message:

An error occurred during directory enumeration.

Does this mean I have to format?

Most probably. It sounds as if the directory structure of the disk is
very badly damaged. If you have really valuable data in monetary terms,
a specialist service might be able to get it off - but it would cost. It
*might* be in the controllers, in which case it might be possible to
plug the drive into another machine to recover data - but that is a slim
hope.

Aside from that, take the Setup option, New Install; when it asks
where, hit ESC and delete the current partition, make a new one to be
formatted next stage. If this process will not go through then you have
serious hardware trouble