Hi, Clay.
Richie's suggestion is good, but I'd like to clarify that there is NO MS-DOS
in WinXP. There is an emulator built into WinXP that does a very good job
of imitating MS-DOS. There are several ways to run this emulator; one is to
click Start | Accessories | Command Prompt.
This starts Cmd.exe, the 32-bit MS-DOS emulator and opens the "DOS" window
(which I try to remember to always enclose in quotes, since it is not true
DOS). If you use this "DOS" window often (as I do), you might want to drag
it to create a shortcut on your Desktop. You can then right-click on this
shortcut and click Properties to choose how you want the "DOS" window to
appear each time: colors, fonts, window size, etc.
Inside the "DOS" window, nearly all the MS-DOS commands will work as before.
To see a mini-Help file for any command, just type the command followed by
/?; for example: cd /? or chkdsk /?
And if the blue screen flashes briefly, then the computer reboots (as Richie
mentioned), you may need to change the default setting for what WinXP is to
do on "System Failure". The default is to "Automatically restart", which
fixes many computer problems, as we've all learned, but leaves us with no
clues as to what caused the restart. If WinXP hits a snag while booting, it
may try to tell you about the problem, but if it is set to automatically
restart, it simply does that before you have a chance to read the
explanation.
If you can boot into WinXP, even in Safe Mode, then go to System Properties
| Advanced | Startup and Recovery Settings and remove the check from the
Automatically restart box. This won't fix your underlying problem, but
instead of flashing the blue screen and rebooting, your computer will halt
with the BSOD onscreen, giving you plenty of time to read it. If you don't
understand those codes, copy them (verbatim) into your next post and someone
here should be able to point you in the right direction.
Could you tell us more about your computer and about your WinXP
installation? How many HDs, and how are they partitioned and formatted?
Was this an upgrade from Win9x/ME, or a "clean install" of WinXP? What
version of Windows (if any) was pre-installed on your computer?
The "freeze up" with the boot menu onscreen is not just the normal countdown
(30 seconds, by default), is it? On the same page as the automatic restart
setting, make sure you've selected your choice of Windows for the default,
and set the delay to a shorter time - or clear the box. Also, you can click
the Edit button here to view and, if necessary, change the settings in
C:\boot.ini. If you need more information about that file, post back.
RC
