No login screen, I'm dead in water

[tgroover]

Big trouble -- I have an HP portable with XP Home and a set of quick restore
disks. I also happen to have an XP installation disk for full-blown XP. I
cannot use this machine because the boot stops with the light blue screen
showing only the Windows XP logo. What the heck can I do? I would at least
like to get a full backup before getting professional help. I tried booting
from the XP installation disk to do a repair, but it prompts me for a
password, and I never set a password for this portable, so I can't go
forward with this either. How can I get to my data and get past this OS hang
up?

 

[tgroover]

BTW I tried to boot to "last good configuration" or however it is phrased
and the same results ensued as if I just booted normally. Also safe mode
gets me nowhere

 

[John John]

Where does it ask for a password? Check the owners manual or visit HP's
support site to find out how to reset the password.

Remove the drive from laptop and using a drive adapter kit (costs about
$5.00) you should be able to place the drive in a USB enclosure or
temporarily mount it to a desktop and retrieve your files.

John

 

[peter]

not too sure where you are asked for a password....but if you did not have
one just press enter.
Here is a website that explains the Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058
peter