I reinstalled WinXP but it won't start - contin. loop of restarts

[Linda]

Hi,

Hope someone can help. I reinstalled WinXP Home and it
seemed successful. However, it's going through a
continuous loop of restarts now. Each time, the following
screen appears
" Win did not start sucessfully. Recent hardware or
software change might have caused this.
If your comp stopped responding,.................Choose
last known good configuration. If a previous startup
attempt was interrupted due to a power failure
or........................................... .....choose
start windows normally.
Safe mode
Safe mode with networking
Safe mode with command prompt
Last known good configuration
Start windows normally"

When any of these options is selected, a blue screen
flashes so quick I can't read it (caught the words memory
dump, though) and it restarts again.

Please oh please, help if you can!

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Linda;
Try a Repair Installation:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/repaxp.htm

 

[Linda]

Thanks. I tried this after visiting the link you sent.
However, when I go into Repair, it takes me into Recovery
COnsole in DOS and asks for an Administrator password.
When I pressed Enter without a password(which I don't
have), I'm at C:\WINDOWS. What do I do now?

 

[FredP]

Hi, Linda ... the Recovery Console is not the Repair section, you'll
need to continue past that a couple of more screens. See Michael
Stevens well-written site on doing an XP Repair at:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm (Note Section 3.)

Don't feel bad though, you're not the first (and won't be the last) to
stumble on the poor terminology ... we tried in vain during the beta to
have MS change the language of the Recovery Console screen.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Linda;
You clicked R to enter the Recovery Console, don't.
You press R later on:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_install.htm


--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
An easier way to read newsgroup messages:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/newsgroups/setup.asp
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/

 

[Linda]

Fred, thanks. I actually don't have the option listed,
and the article you pointed me to explains that. By the
way, this response was built off of previous notes, so
you may not know that I've done a clean Reinstall here.
Wiped the hard drive, used Fdisk to create partition,
etc. Anyway, I'm now wondering if I have to try this all
again. I have a strange message listed under my only
partition. Have you ever seen this? "Unkonwn disk (There
is no disk in this drive.) However, the Installation CD
is in the drive!

The only options I have on the screen are to set up WinXP
on the selecteditem, create a partition (I have one-
~30GB, or Delete the partition. I'm still working on
this, but if you have any other ideas, I'm game to try.
I'm not clueless here...I've just never run into this
much trouble installing anything before. I've installed
plenty of OS's in the last 10 years, and even the initial
Clean install of XP went beautifully. I just have no idea
what's up? It can't be a bad RAM chip, can it? How could
I have gotten this far if it was that, right?
Yeesh! Sorry for the blather. And thanks again.
Lin

 

[Guest]

Hi, thanks for the link! In a lengthy response, I just
explained what's happening on the other response. Check
it out (by now, it's posted) and let me know if you think
I'm nuts!
Thanks.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Linda;
If you started a Clean Installation with an FDISK and are still having
troubles, just start over.
FDISK is not necessary as Windows XP will do it all.
Follow this link for a Clean Installation, make sure you delete the
partitions:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/cleanxp.htm

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
An easier way to read newsgroup messages:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/newsgroups/setup.asp
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/

 

[Guest]

Thanks. I agree. The Fdisk route was part of a multitude
of advice and my husband's tinkering. I've tried the
clean install twice now with the XP cd. This last time, I
used it to delete the partition and do a clean install. I
still see this funky message and don't see any mention of
it in news/columns/anywhere (and I've been scouring the
Internet for it) On the setup screen where partitions are
listed, the foll. msg is always there below the
partition...
Unknown Disk
There is no disk in the disk drive.

Have you ever seen that? I don't even know if it's a
problem.
Anyway, what's happening now...
Clean install. Had to do it twice because 1st time, files
wouldn't copy. F3'd to exit and redo. (Maybe just read
errors?) Second time, install files copied and fetting to
next phase of install. Says will take about 37 minutes,
but it's bombing out and cycling through restarts at
around 35-31 mins. I'm back to where this note string
started except I'm looping restarts before installation
is even complete. I'm in MS HELL!
Select an option:
1. Call a Pro, bend over, and take it up the "wallet"
2. Find the sledgehammer

Could I have a clocking error? (In which case, I'm lost.)
Oh, and thanks for sticking with me.
Lin

 

[Linda]

Wow, do I actually have good news? Had to try the clean
install 3 more times, but finally got it through, I
think. Had to ignore one file that wouldn't coy (Is
heart.wmz important?) but got to the point where I'm IN
WIN XP.
Well, if you think I've done it, I'll hobble on and try
to get my hardware and hub back in place, and start what
I thought would be the worst part of this...loading
everything!

Thanks for hanging in. Looking forward to your final
thoughts.
Lin

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Linda;
Hopefully it will be OK.
Is the computer overclocked?
That can cause a multitude of issues if not performed precisely.

Also, if you have further issues, reseat CD drive IDE cables and
replace CD drive if possible. (swap temp from another computer will
work)

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
An easier way to read newsgroup messages:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/newsgroups/setup.asp
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/

 

[FredP]

Hi, Linda ... congratulations ... sounds like it's been quite an effort!

'heart.wmz' is a Media Player 'skin' and is not important, but the fact
that anything during the install needs to be 'ignored' to continue might
indicate a CD problem (scratch, etc.) or a problem with the CD-ROM
itself. And, yes, fdisk is absolutely not necessary for an XP install
and can cause problems ... best to install XP to unallocated space and
let it 'do its thing'.

Are you, by chance, installing XP on a SATA drive?