XP Home SP2 safe mode only-Help please?

[Guest]

Model: Carerra 300
CPU Type: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3000+

Would really appreciate some advice please.

After problem with ATI driver, can only get into safe mode. Tried last
known good configuration, VGA. On reboot goes into 800x600 vga, but cannot
rectify problem. ATI drivers no longer visible in Device Manager (no Display
Adapters entry), but I cannot reinstall the drivers from the ATI CD, nor can
I boot into normal mode after using safe mode (eventually goes to wallpaper
but nothing works - not even C-A-D).

Machine is 13 months old, supplier gone out of business. They did not
supply Windows CD, OS was already installed. Now have brand new copy of
Windows XP Home. Would like to be able to link to home network, get CD
writer working or access USB memory key before doing anything drastic to back
off a number of files that were not backed up when problem occurred.

Many thanks.

 

[neil]

While you in safemode go to the "run" command from the start menu. Type in
msconfig and click OK then click on normal startup assuming it is not
already set then click OK and restart your PC.

Neil

 

[Nepatsfan]

Model: Carerra 300
CPU Type: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3000+

Would really appreciate some advice please.

After problem with ATI driver, can only get into safe mode.
Tried last known good configuration, VGA. On reboot goes
into 800x600 vga, but cannot rectify problem. ATI drivers
no longer visible in Device Manager (no Display Adapters
entry), but I cannot reinstall the drivers from the ATI CD,
nor can I boot into normal mode after using safe mode
(eventually goes to wallpaper but nothing works - not even
C-A-D).

Machine is 13 months old, supplier gone out of business.
They did not supply Windows CD, OS was already installed.
Now have brand new copy of Windows XP Home. Would like to
be able to link to home network, get CD writer working or
access USB memory key before doing anything drastic to back
off a number of files that were not backed up when problem
occurred.

Many thanks.

If faced with this problem, I'd do the following:

Option #1

Boot with one of the following bootable CD's:

Ultimate Boot CD for Windows
http://www.ubcd4win.com/howto.htm

Knoppix Live CD
http://www.knoppix.org/

Either of these will allow you to write data to a CD or USB
drive.

Option #2

Take the hard drive out of the machine that's having problems
and put it into another system running Windows XP or 2000 as a
slave drive. Make sure the drives are jumpered correctly. Next,
take ownership of the files on the second drive using the
procedure outlined here:

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

Once that's done, copy the files and folders over to the
primary drive or burn the files to CD. After all the files are
recovered, put the hard drive back in the problem system.

After recovering data files, run a repair installation using
your XP Home CD. Take a look here for the procedure:

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Guest]

many thanks for this, currently downloading things needed for Ultimate Boot
Cd - will let you know how it goes.

 

[Guest]

Many thanks again. The job is now done!

The Ultimate Boot CD was excellent and did allow me to save the data, as you
said it would.

The "How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install" was very helpful too. The
repair was successful, and all the data and settings were preserved, but I
didn't want to take a chance with the data. I now have a fully up to date
backup too.

PeteB

 

[Nepatsfan]

Many thanks again. The job is now done!

The Ultimate Boot CD was excellent and did allow me to save
the data, as you said it would.

The "How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install" was very
helpful too. The repair was successful, and all the data
and settings were preserved, but I didn't want to take a
chance with the data. I now have a fully up to date backup
too.

PeteB

You're welcome. Glad to hear you were able to get your system
up and running again.

Nepatsfan