XP has crashed and recovery console is not working

[Guest]

Hi. Two nights ago, my hard drive started making a horrible churning noise, and then went to the blue screen of death. I turned the machine off, and rebooted, but at the windows main screen (desktop) the icons never reappeared and I couldn't access "Start". I rebooted again, and ever since then, the computer continues to give me the "windows didn't load properly" error & would you like to load in (a) safe mode, (b) safe mode with networking, etc. NONE of them will load. The load process hangs at mup.sys and then reboots itself, ultimately coming back to this screen.

I made the series of 6 XP Pro Bootable disks, and have booted the computer on the floppy drive, getting it to Recovery Console. When I go through this, the computer says it cannot find any previous version of Windows installed. The only disk I can find at the moment is my XP Pro Upgrade disk, so alas, the machine will not run recovery. My machine DID not come with a recovery disk.

Any ideas???

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Try a repair install as follows:


--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

Hi. Two nights ago, my hard drive started making a horrible churning

noise, and then went to the blue screen of death. I turned the machine off,
and rebooted, but at the windows main screen (desktop) the icons never
reappeared and I couldn't access "Start". I rebooted again, and ever since
then, the computer continues to give me the "windows didn't load properly"
error & would you like to load in (a) safe mode, (b) safe mode with
networking, etc. NONE of them will load. The load process hangs at mup.sys
and then reboots itself, ultimately coming back to this screen.

I made the series of 6 XP Pro Bootable disks, and have booted the computer

on the floppy drive, getting it to Recovery Console. When I go through this,
the computer says it cannot find any previous version of Windows installed.
The only disk I can find at the moment is my XP Pro Upgrade disk, so alas,
the machine will not run recovery. My machine DID not come with a recovery
disk.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Sorry about the previous post. Try a repair install as follows:
NOTE, while a repair install should leave your data files intact, if
something goes wrong during the repair install, you may be forced to start
over and do a clean install of XP. If you don't have your data backed up,
you would lose your data should that eventuality occur.



Boot from the CD. If your system is set to be able to boot from the CD, it
should detect the disk and give a brief message, during the boot up, if you
wish to boot from the CD press any key.



Once you have pressed a key, setup should begin. You will see a reference
asking if you need to load special drivers and another notice that if you
wish to begin the ASR (Automatic Recovery Console) depress F2. Just let
setup run past all of that. It will continue to load files and drivers.



Then it will bring you to a screen. Eventually, you will come to a screen
with the option to (1) setup Windows or (2) Repair Windows Installation
using the Recovery console.



The first option, to setup Windows is the one you want and requires you to
press enter. When asked, press F8 to accept the end user agreement. Setup
will then search for previous versions of Windows. Upon finding your
version, it will ask if you wish to Repair your current installation or
install fresh. Press R, that will run a repair installation. From there
on, follow the screens.


--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

Hi. Two nights ago, my hard drive started making a horrible churning

noise, and then went to the blue screen of death. I turned the machine off,
and rebooted, but at the windows main screen (desktop) the icons never
reappeared and I couldn't access "Start". I rebooted again, and ever since
then, the computer continues to give me the "windows didn't load properly"
error & would you like to load in (a) safe mode, (b) safe mode with
networking, etc. NONE of them will load. The load process hangs at mup.sys
and then reboots itself, ultimately coming back to this screen.

I made the series of 6 XP Pro Bootable disks, and have booted the computer

on the floppy drive, getting it to Recovery Console. When I go through this,
the computer says it cannot find any previous version of Windows installed.
The only disk I can find at the moment is my XP Pro Upgrade disk, so alas,
the machine will not run recovery. My machine DID not come with a recovery
disk.

 

[Guest]

When I get to the point where the setup is supposed to detect a previous installation, it can't find one, and halts waiting for me to put a full version disk in. We searched my fiance's house this morning and can't find our Windows ME or Windows 2000 Full Version disks.

So I'm stuck then aren't I? :-(

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

A repair install shouldn't require a previous version because it is simply
repairing the installation already on the hard drive. Did you attempt the
repair install and follow the posted instructions or did you try a new
install? True, if you tried a repair install and it couldn't find an
installation on the hard drive, then only a new installation will work.

Since you have an upgrade version, how were you able to install it
initially? You have no disks? If that is the case your only out would be
to purchase the full version.

--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

When I get to the point where the setup is supposed to detect a previous

installation, it can't find one, and halts waiting for me to put a full
version disk in. We searched my fiance's house this morning and can't find
our Windows ME or Windows 2000 Full Version disks.

 

[Guest]

I did what you said in the email and that said hit enter which was install. Then you said it would detect the previous installation and prompt me again to repair. I never could get to that point because it can't detect the previous installation. I don't know where our disks are because we moved 5 months ago and they seemed to have gotten lost during the move.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Based on the previous information you've provided, there's not much else you
can do except purchase the full version as there is no way to install the
upgrade without the media for a previous Windows operating system.

--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

I did what you said in the email and that said hit enter which was

install. Then you said it would detect the previous installation and prompt
me again to repair. I never could get to that point because it can't detect
the previous installation. I don't know where our disks are because we moved
5 months ago and they seemed to have gotten lost during the move.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Actually, there is one other possibility I neglected to mention. You could
try purchasing a previous operating system version on eBay. You can
probably find a Windows 98 or earlier for a very modest price. That would
give you the necessary media to reinstall the upgrade version of XP you
already have.

--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

I did what you said in the email and that said hit enter which was

install. Then you said it would detect the previous installation and prompt
me again to repair. I never could get to that point because it can't detect
the previous installation. I don't know where our disks are because we moved
5 months ago and they seemed to have gotten lost during the move.