Please Help with Computer booting problem

[Dave Trolley Car Thomason]

I have a Gateway computer running Xp pro that will no longer boot to any
mode. It started as a possible virus problem where it rebooted in normal
mode but I could boot to safe mode and scan for viruses, but found none.
After one attempt to see if the thing would boot outside of safe mode the
computer rebooted as windows finished loading and since then reboots after
the first screen in any mode. So it now just runs on a continuous loop of
booting.

I think that the rebooting damaged files and directories that created the
curent problem. I would just run my restore disks but we just moved and
those disks were lost, along with the Gateway restore disks and my xp pro
disks.

Is there a program out there that can boot from a cd and check my drive for
disk errors and fix them? McAfee, Symantec, and Gateway have been no help.

Is there maybe a different course of action I can take?

Any help will be greatly appreciated. My wife is tired of me using her
computer.

 

[Silvabod]

Unlikely that Gateway would have provided XPPro pre-installed (would have
been XPHome) so you must have had a retail copy of XPPro. Loading that would
have virtually invalidated your Gateway "restore" disk, except for drivers.

But, since you have now "lost" ALL your system disks, and now have a corrupt
OS, you could try contacting Microsoft for a replacement disk.
The XP Home (pre-installed) serial no. is on the back of your pc (well,
usually, never had a Gateway) - tell Microsoft your "sob story" and you
MIGHT get a "discount" price, though it's unlikely!.

Since Gateway's gone bust, they'll not be able to help, either. Your only
real option is to buy a retail copy of XP and start from scratch, a clean
installation. Once you have an OS, you can download your hardware drivers
(XP will load default drivers for most things anyway).

You could try a "repair" installation from the new XP disk,(which would
perhaps preserve any files/progs you have), but, don't hold your breath - it
may not be an available option anyway, since the serial nos. don't match
(and Home and Pro are different systems).

Better way. Buy a new hdd, REPLACING the existing one, a new XP CD, load it
up and and get all updates, including hardware drivers..

Then, reconnect your old hdd as slave, see if you can recover data that way
(for God's sake do a full in-depth virus scan on it first!)

Be aware, you are looking at expense of >£100 (you don't need a massive new
hdd - 40GB is big and cheap enough) - it's XP that will be costly).
Could perhaps save a very few quid by installing W98 first (or ME) then buy
XP Upgrade - is it worth the hassle, just for a few quid? Your choice - it's
another option.

Good Luck!
Last time I did this, was at least 12 hours work in total (those damned
updates - esp SP2).
PS - one of the FIRST things to load and run is an AV - suggest you download
AVG (free).