Going round in circles

[Guest]

I hope someone can help. I loaded Norton Security 2005 on my main machine
last night, did all the virus and disc checks then thought I would 'defrag'
Just as it was about to start Windows crashed and is now going round in
circles and cannot start, although it does give me all the options (Safe
mode, Normal, etc.) nothing works it just keeps going round in circles. I
have Windows XP Home. I use the computer a great deal but when something
like this happens I am absolutely lost. I have tried putting the windows
disc in the attempt a repair but it asks me questions I don't understand or
can't answer and I am very concerned that I don't lose my data which I
understand I would do if I reinstalled Windows. If anyone can offer advice
or help I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks

 

[Guest]

Well I am gonna ask you some questions and lets see what the problem is ok?
Can you start the system in the safe mode? If you can back up all of your
information.
Secondly, use the system restore function to restore the system to a
previous time. This is all accomplished my using the Administrator logon. You
can also uninstall Norton and try the system again.

 

[Guest]

Unfortunately I cannot start the system in any mode at all and therefore
don't think I can back up my data (at least that teaches me a very hard
lesson!) I can't get to the system restore or uninstall function at all - it
just won't let me in and keeps going round from the 'sorry' message and if
your computer stopped responding do this.... or if it was reset do this...
(none of which I can in fact do as it just ignores everything I try. Then,
after it does a count down to windows starting it goes on to the windows
front page, then a black blank page, then the 'motherboard page (I think),
then back to the message page. I am sorry if I am not explaining this very
well - would it help if I typed out the message in full?

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Everything was working fine until you decided to install Norton Security
2005? Norton is a marvellous tool it's a pity is causes more problems than
it cures.

You could really do with restoring your system back to before you installed
Norton Security but you have a problem, you can't boot the machine and you
can't boot into safe mode.

Can you use the 'last known good confirgurations' or does that not work
also?

You can attempt a repair. To do that visit my website
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org Click on the Win Faq button and take a look
at question 55. Obviously you are using someone elses pc to contact the
newsgroup so you may want to print the details of Question 55 so you can
refer to them.

As you rightly say, if you do a complete reinstall of windows you will loose
everything so you really have two options. 1/ try to access your pc using an
emergency boot disk (which you don't have) or 2/ try a repair of windows xp.

To be honest i would rather you try method 1 first. What i suggest is that
you look in the Contact details of my website and email me directly. I need
an email address that can recieve files. What i will do is email you the
contents of an emergency boot disk. All you need do is ask a friend to
format a floppy disk for you and then copy the files i send onto the floppy.
Once that is done try booting your machine from the floppy disk. If the
floppy works it will load windows and the desktop will appear. Once you are
at the desktop i suggest you do a system restore back to before you
installed Norton System 2005. Hopefully that will cure the problem. Whether
you install Norton system 2005 again is up to you. The same problem may
occur or it may not. The choice is yours.

 

[kurttrail]

I hope someone can help. I loaded Norton Security 2005

That was your mistake. Over the last couple of years, Norton has
brought more computers to their knees than all the any malicious peice
of code!

on my main
machine last night, did all the virus and disc checks then thought I
would 'defrag' Just as it was about to start Windows crashed and is
now going round in circles and cannot start, although it does give me
all the options (Safe mode, Normal, etc.) nothing works it just
keeps going round in circles. I have Windows XP Home. I use the
computer a great deal but when something like this happens I am
absolutely lost. I have tried putting the windows disc in the
attempt a repair but it asks me questions I don't understand or can't
answer and I am very concerned that I don't lose my data which I
understand I would do if I reinstalled Windows. If anyone can offer
advice or help I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"

 

[Guest]

Thanks John, I have had a look at your website (saw a previous reply you sent
someone else earlier). I am still concerned that I might lose my data -
backing up has never been my strong point and I have hundreds of photos I
would not be able to replace. Actually my machined seemed ok after I had
installed Norton (already had 2004, this was 2005). In fact we crashed when
I attempted a 'defrag' so I guess it could have been either (still Norton
though). What are the percentages of me losing all my data on a repair -
impossible question? I have been told I can back up my data from my hard
drive to another computer or disk but I don't know how to remove it. This is
my laptop - if I could get my hard disc out could I back it up to this?

 

[John Barnett MVP]

repair install isn't supposed to be destructive, but there is always the
first time. I certainly wouldn't attempt removing a laptop hard drive. It's
probbaly the same as removing one from a desktop, which i have done many
time, but as your knowledge is somewhat limited i wouldn't recommend it.
Let's try my suggestion of the emergency boot disk first and see what
happens.

 

[Guest]

Toby,
The website the other forum member gave you good information. You might also
want to do this. Pull the hard drive. Slave it to run with another Win XP
computer.
Try to access the hard drive by the new drive letter. Try this:
right click on my computer
wait for the browser to populate
right click on the slaved hard drive and select explore.
try to open files you see on the hdd. If not you have bit it and lost
everything.
pull the drive and reinstall in your system as master and restore the o/s.
A fast way to clean the drive for re-use.
Go to www.killdisk.com and download the free bootable diskette version or
burn the bootable image to CD Rom as an image file. Trust me this works fine.
boot the system and wipe the drive clean. Use the 0's1's overwrite mode.
usually the first selection. select the drive you want to erase and follow
the directions. It does a good job of killing the HDD. Pop the restore disks
in and reboot the system.
If you want to double check the drive start the system with nothing in the
drives. You should see "operating system not found" if so you have got it
made. Then pop the restore in and let it work for you. A majority of the
restores will partition (Fdisk)
and format the drive. Do not choose quick format.
after it is all said and done please remember to back up your files. burning
to CD is great.
Good luck to you.
John
"Doc"

 

[Guest]

It is the laptop I am using at the moment - my main PC is the one in a spin.
I will attempt a repair and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks

 

[kurttrail]

Computer_Doc_1® wrote:

after it is all said and done please remember to back up your files.

Should that be, before you do anything "please remember to back up your
files?"

Cuz if the OP waits until "after it is all said and done," it would be
too late, if and/or when something goes wrong.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"

 

[John Barnett MVP]

My mistake regarding the laptop. my apologies. I assume your laptop is
running XP? If so then you can create the floppy emergency boot disk
yourself - see question 10 on my website for details.
If you could borrow someone elses desktop pc you could probably try slaving
your hard drive to the borrowed pc and copying your photo files to say a
cd/r or cd/rw.