G
Guest
A long-running household computer won't boot: something on the disk became
corrupted, although the preceding shut-down was uneventful. I swapped *all*
hardware save the disks, IDE cable and power cord. [Yes EVERYTHING, m/b,
proc', etc.] Regardless of the parts installed, it crashes in exactly the
same manner: it looks like a fine boot until it throws some "noise" on the
monitor and self-reboots just before it should be putting up the login page.
I can't boot to any mode -- admin level, command line -- w/o this failure.
On-screen logging doesn't show anything strange. [Are there non-displayed
logs that would show what triggered the re-boot?] Telling it to use the last
successful version doesn't work.
All I can think of to do are
(1) boot from CD and look for some [unknown-to-me] restore option, or
(2) put the disk on another XP pro computer and run diagnostics there.
(1) Of course, I can't find where I left my @#$%^ iridescent master XP pro
disk. 'Have looked throughout my house and my girlfriend's where I've used it
-- yes, with a legitimate P-Key. Even if I found the CD, it's SP1 at best.
'Can't even find a torrent of XP pro SP2 English -- one's listed, but
withdrawn. I -do- have my master copy of XP *home* SP2... but I doubt that
would be sane or even work on the Pro system.
(2) Other than doing a disk-check, I'm unsure what I can usefully do with
the system's disk mounted on another XP pro system. ...
....
Okay, I've now done what I can think of with (2): I moved the disk into
another XP system, started a boot and grabbed a diet ginger-ale. That last
step was ill-advised as I returned to the computer to find it was running an
unsolicited, extensive boot-time disk-check; alas, I didn't see -which- disk
was being checked as it was off-screen on my return! Upon completion/boot, I
ran normal disk-checking of the un-bootable system disk with the "fix bad
blocks" option. I then returned the disk to the original system and...
taa-daa... the same boot-time crash-loop began. No progress....
I'm wondering if there's a better Plan. Clearly cleaning my house until I
find the missing CD might help, but... it's a big house! I'd appreciate any
advice.
Thanks for any insights on this!
corrupted, although the preceding shut-down was uneventful. I swapped *all*
hardware save the disks, IDE cable and power cord. [Yes EVERYTHING, m/b,
proc', etc.] Regardless of the parts installed, it crashes in exactly the
same manner: it looks like a fine boot until it throws some "noise" on the
monitor and self-reboots just before it should be putting up the login page.
I can't boot to any mode -- admin level, command line -- w/o this failure.
On-screen logging doesn't show anything strange. [Are there non-displayed
logs that would show what triggered the re-boot?] Telling it to use the last
successful version doesn't work.
All I can think of to do are
(1) boot from CD and look for some [unknown-to-me] restore option, or
(2) put the disk on another XP pro computer and run diagnostics there.
(1) Of course, I can't find where I left my @#$%^ iridescent master XP pro
disk. 'Have looked throughout my house and my girlfriend's where I've used it
-- yes, with a legitimate P-Key. Even if I found the CD, it's SP1 at best.
'Can't even find a torrent of XP pro SP2 English -- one's listed, but
withdrawn. I -do- have my master copy of XP *home* SP2... but I doubt that
would be sane or even work on the Pro system.
(2) Other than doing a disk-check, I'm unsure what I can usefully do with
the system's disk mounted on another XP pro system. ...
....
Okay, I've now done what I can think of with (2): I moved the disk into
another XP system, started a boot and grabbed a diet ginger-ale. That last
step was ill-advised as I returned to the computer to find it was running an
unsolicited, extensive boot-time disk-check; alas, I didn't see -which- disk
was being checked as it was off-screen on my return! Upon completion/boot, I
ran normal disk-checking of the un-bootable system disk with the "fix bad
blocks" option. I then returned the disk to the original system and...
taa-daa... the same boot-time crash-loop began. No progress....
I'm wondering if there's a better Plan. Clearly cleaning my house until I
find the missing CD might help, but... it's a big house! I'd appreciate any
advice.
Thanks for any insights on this!
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