XP won't start! Help!

[Kostatus]

My Windows XP (Home edition with SP2) won't start. It stays in the loading
screen with the WinXP logo and the little animated bar at the bottom. The
bar keeps animating, but nothing happens. Usually it takes me between 1 and
2 minutes to fully boot up, but now I can leave it for hours and nothing
happens.

The first time this happened, I booted up in safe mode and told it to do a
thorough scan disk on my HD with the OS files on it. It promised me to do it
next time it reboots, but the next time I rebooted it did not come up, and
the same story with the endless loading screen. I tried going into safe mode
again, BUT IT NO LONGER WORKED!!!

This is where I took it down to the repair shop. There they told me that
when they started it up the first time it did the thorough scan disk!!! Then
it worked perfectly after that, but they ran some diagnostics tests, charged
me and gave it back to me 2 days later. The XP worked perfectly the first
time I started, normal loading time. But the next time I turned it off and
turned it on again - same storey as before. I tried the scan disk again in
the hope that this time it will work and fix it as it seems to have done with
the repair guys, but again safe mode won't start now. I tried leaving it
turned off over night to cool it off - that didn't help.

What can I do?

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

Try a repair install as follows and note, if your SP2 isn't integrated into
your Windows install CD, you'll need to reinstall SP2 after you run the
repair:
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.

Assuming your system is set to boot from the CD-ROM drive and you have an
actual XP CD as opposed to a recovery CD, boot with the XP
CD in the drive and perform a repair install as outlined below. If the
system isn't set to boot from the CD or you are not sure, you need to enter
the system's BIOS. When you boot the system, the first screen usually has
instructions that if you wish to enter set press a specific key, when you
see that, do so. Then you will have to navigate to the boot sequence, if
the CD-ROM drive is not first line, set it first in the boot sequence. Save
your settings and exit with the XP CD in the drive. The system will reboot.

When the system boots, a few screens into the process you may see a message
instructing you
to hit any key in order to boot from the CD along with a countdown. When
you see this be sure to
hit a key on the keyboard, if you miss this instruction and the system fails
to boot from the CD, it's too
late, you'll need to reboot and try again.

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 selection you want at this screen is
"Setup Windows,"
NOT "Repair Windows Installation.

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.

Note, in some cases, you won't receive the repair option, only an option to
reinstall. We have discovered that sometimes this is caused by damaged
boot.ini file that can be repaired as follows and also note, in the
instructions, "K" refers to the CD drive in which you have placed the XP CD,
replace that drive letter with the appropriate letter on your system, "K" is
simply an example.

Reboot, this time taking the immediate R option (this is the section I told
you to skip above. In this case, you will need to get to the Recovery
Console to perform the function below), and if the CD letter is say K: give
these commands

COPY K:\i386\ntldr C:
COPY K:\i386\ntdetect.com C:
(two other files needed - just in case)
ATTRIB -H -R -S C:\boot.ini
DEL C:\boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild

Once you've completed this function, reboot and see if you can access XP as
sometimes, the problem is the damaged boot.ini. If you still cannot access
XP, then reboot and re-run the repair install instructions at the beginning
of this message.

If you only have a recovery CD, your options are quite limited. You can
either purchase a retail version of XP which will allow you to perform the
above
among other tools and options it has or you can run your system recovery
routine with the Recovery CD which will likely wipe your drive, deleting all
files but will restore your setup to factory fresh condition.

 

[Kostatus]

On 05 Nov 2004, Michael Solomon (MS-MVP) wrote:

....

Note, in some cases, you won't receive the repair option,
only an option to reinstall.

Yes this is my case.

We have discovered that sometimes this is caused by
damaged boot.ini file that can be repaired as follows and also note, in
the instructions, "K" refers to the CD drive in which you have placed
the XP CD, replace that drive letter with the appropriate letter on your
system, "K" is simply an example.

Reboot, this time taking the immediate R option (this is the section I
told you to skip above. In this case, you will need to get to the
Recovery Console to perform the function below), and if the CD letter is
say K: give these commands

COPY K:\i386\ntldr C:
COPY K:\i386\ntdetect.com C:
(two other files needed - just in case)
ATTRIB -H -R -S C:\boot.ini
DEL C:\boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild

I already tried to do something similar to this, but I couldn't get to this
stage! I couldn't get the Administrator Password to work! (as I already
posted in a different thread, before seeing this reply come up). I tried my
user admin. user account passwords, I tried leaving it blank, I even tried
typing in "Administrator" - nothing worked! I don't remember even seeing
anything called the "Administrator password" other than the XP user accounts.

Any way around this rather than a re-install?

Once you've completed this function, reboot and see if you can access XP
as sometimes, the problem is the damaged boot.ini. If you still cannot
access XP, then reboot and re-run the repair install instructions at the
beginning of t hismessage.

If you only have a recovery CD, your options are quite limited. You can
either purchase a retail version of XP which will allow you to perform
the above
among other tools and options it has or you can run your system recovery
routine with the Recovery CD which will likely wipe your drive, deleting
all files but will restore your setup to factory fresh condition.

I think I have the full CD, not just recovery - it allows me to install XP.
Though I'm trying to leave the OS re-installation till nothing else works.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

Check out the following with regard to the Recovery Console:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/recovery_console.htm
scroll down to: Recovery Console Password

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308402
'The Password Is Not Valid' Error Message Appears When You Log On to
Recovery
Console in Windows XP

 

[Kostatus]

Check out the following with regard to the Recovery Console:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/recovery_console.htm
scroll down to: Recovery Console Password

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308402
'The Password Is Not Valid' Error Message Appears When You Log On to
Recovery
Console in Windows XP

Thanks! It's all fixed now! I booted the recovery console from the
floppies, fixed the boot.ini, and then I could 'repair' my Windows
installation from the CD. Thanks again for your help!

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

You're welcome, glad I could help.