Help - can't boot up

[Tom]

Help!

My laptop uses XP Pro & it crashed - when booting up I get the Dos screen
giving options of:

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networkin
Last known configuration that worked
Boot up Normally

Whichever option I choose the hard drive light comes on & then the system
re-boots and comes back to the above menu.

Any advice on how to correct this problem would be appreciated

TIA

Tom

 

[DandyDon]

Sounds like the harddrive crashed and died, or Windows install got
corrupted. Does your laptop have a CD/DVD drive?. Do you have the Windows XP
CD? If you do, try a Windows repair.

Boot off the cd, skip recovery console; select install Windows. Windows will
detect previous install and offer repair option, select repair. Windows will
reinstall and leave all settings and files intact.

You will need your Product Key, and will have to reinstall all patches
through Windows Update.

If the drive has failed, you might try hard drive diagnostic software from
drive manufacturer. To find out who makes the drive you will need to open
the laptop. If you don't know how to do that, take it to a local computer
shop that works on your brand of laptop, or send machine back to the
manufacturer.
Good Luck

 

[Rock]

Help!

My laptop uses XP Pro & it crashed - when booting up I get the Dos screen
giving options of:

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networkin
Last known configuration that worked
Boot up Normally

Whichever option I choose the hard drive light comes on & then the system
re-boots and comes back to the above menu.

Any advice on how to correct this problem would be appreciated

TIA

Tom

What had you done right before the system crashed? Did you install any
new hardware or software? If the answer is yes you might need to enter
recovery console and disable drivers and services that were newly
installed.

If that is not the case one option is to run a chkdsk from the recovery
console. As a word of warning, running chkdsk could work but it can
also cause file corruption. So it is wise to make sure you have a full
and complete backup before running it.

That said boot from the windows installation CD, take the first R for
repair, choose the installation to repair, and enter the password for
the built in Administrator account. For XP Pro that was assigned at the
time of installation. For XP Home it is normally blank unless assigned
later, so just hit enter. At the command prompt type in chkdsk /p.

If that doesn't work do a repair install.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm