Windows XP Professional Booting problems

I don't think you will save the emails unless you have them saved in a pst file or something like that.  You may be lucky, however you may need to reinstall the email package or it may overwrite it if its OE with the windows inplace upgrade.

If you have a spare HDD I would slave yours and drag as much data across to the other one and then start again fresh.

If you do the inplace upgrade as suggested then boot the cd and go to the recovery console first and then copy the outlook.dbx file to another location so if the inplace upgrade does overwrite it with a new one then you will keep your emails in the old file.  Then use http://www.webattack.com/get/dbxviewer.html to get the data back.

Good point Stoner79,

but i doubt the information will be overwritten as the mentioned .dbx files are stored in the user directory and those aren't ussually overwritten when doing a inplace upgrade or repair.

have you tried a step by step confirmation boot?

It will ask before doing each step...
If you run into a part that causes a problem next time try skipping that step...
and remember the step and check into that.

Assuming that you havd the CD, if you can get into your
Bios and change so it will boot from Cd , after that reboot and
putyou XP Cd in and elect a "repair."  When I had to do that
with Home Ed, the only thing I lost were all the XP patches and updates, I didnot lose any other date files and all of the programs
still worked.

Answer to Rigor Mortis: I tried all the options in the F8 mode but it did not work. It  kept on rebooting e.g. looping.

Answer to kabamm: how do you run the step by step confirmation boot ?? is this the one generated by pressing F8 safety mode ?? I think I did but it does not stop to do a step by step..

Answer to LRI41: I have the CD but it does not autoboot.

The step by step should be one of the safe mode boot options.  During the boot process every step it will ask you yes/no to do that step.

Answer to kabaam: Strange cause I do not get this step by step option in the safe mode boot option

Answer to kabaam: Strange cause I do not get this step by step option in the safe mode boot option

Answer to LRI41: I have the CD but it does not autoboot
 roych1, you probably have to press either F2 or F8. when it
starts up, you see Bios Press and then you have to press that key
to get into the bios and change the boot sequence to start with
CD rather then Floppy Drive and save the change and then
re-boot and put your CD into the Trey.

Answer to LRI41: I did change the boot settin in the Bios setup to CD rom but when the boot begings it looks for the boot sector in the XP Prof CD and finds none, thus cannot boot from the CD.

Answer to Stoner79: I think your option is the one I believe will work but I will have to try other methods before I reinstall XP with a HD format cause I assume there is no XP upgrade without a HD format.

roych1,

to set your mind at ease, you can reinstall windows xp without having to reformat your harddisk, no problem there. The only thing that could happen in this case (a reinstall without formatting your harddisk) is that some of your personal settings and / or documents are overwritten. Although chances for that happening aren't that big because they mostly are stored in your personal documents & settings folder, and unless your using a commen username like administrator that folder won't be overwritten when you do a reinstall. I would only recommend that you enter a different username when asked by the installation wizard then the one you've been using now, that way you can copy your settings & documents from the older user directory to the new one without much trouble.

Do you have an upgrade CD or a full version of XP Pro?

I've not used an upgrade CD but if you can't get to the recovery console download the 6 boot disks from MS and try repairing from that.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q310/9/94.asp&NoWebContent=1

You could try putting the /sos switch in the boot.ini file to see if that helps but I suspect a repair or reinstall will be the only option.

One more thing,

it's strange that your windows xp cd won't boot when inserted in the cd-rom drive. Are you sure you changed the boot-order in your bios so that the cd-rom drive is booted from before your harddisk?

Answer to rigor_mortis: is there a way to reinstall XP without formatting the HD ?? I tried to reinstall by booting with the 6 disk provided by MS and then chose Setup from the blue screen with three options and it always wanted me to choose which partition has to be formatted.

Answer to Stoner79: I have a full version of XP Pro but as mentioned above when I use the "R", repair function it does not repair anything. As for putting the sos switch in the Boot.ini, I cannot do this because I have no acces to initiate a msconfig.

Roych1,

Check carefully when in the text based setup as unless the harddrive doens't have a file system (FAT32/NTFS) it should have an option saying leave partition as it is and install anyway.

The boot order in the BIOS should read this too:
CDROM
Floppy Drive
IDE Hard Drive

and it should say press a key to boot from the CD.  If it doesn't do that then either you have a non booting CDROM drive or the XP Pro CD is not working correctly.

I can only concur on what Stoner79 is saying, there should be an option to install windows xp without having to format the harddisk, there even should be an option saying "Repair existing installation", another option you could try.

>I had to shut of my computer by switching off the main electricity because the system was dead and neither the mouse or the keyboard were responding.

Did you make any hardware changes or install any software prior to this crashed?

zd

answer to zdkev: no I did not install any software prior to the crash. The computer was on and I did not use it for a few hours so it went into sleep mode. I wanted to shutdown so I pressed the spacebar to disactivate the sleep mode and nothing responded.

Roy, I had the same exact problem as u so i can help you

listen, i had a win xp pro cd that didnt boot also, so i borrowed one that did and boooted the setup.
After that i went to the recovery console and typed help
in help there is a command that builds a new boot record which is the problem here.
its called i think mbrfix i think
after that u can boot normally like before

type FIXMBR on the recovery console and voila

reply if it worked

Answer to dant3: OK I borrowed a XP CD from my friend and booted with the CD and got the following  3 options:

a. upgrade
b. install new version
c. exit setup without installing XP

Now how do I get to the point were  I can type the FIXMBR command ??

Roy
When you reach the Blue setup window options are:
1. Install Windows XP Professional by pressing ENTER
2. Repair Windows XP Professional using the recovery console by pressing R
3. Exit setup without installing Windows XP Professional by pressing F3

You have to press R and you will enter the recovery console which is in DOS. In there type FIXMBR. Done

Answer to dant3 :  followed your above instructions and pressed R and the following screen with black background appeared:

1: C:\Windows

Which windows installation would you like to log onto (To cancel, press ENTER)?
I typed in 1 then I got the prompt C:\Windows
I typed fixmbr
and then I got the following warning:
**CAUTION**
This computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot record.
FIXMBR may damage your partition tale if you proceed.
This could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk to become inaccessible.
If you are not having problems accessing your dirve, do no continue.

Are you sure you want ow write a new MBR ??

THIS SOUNDS DANGEROUS TO ME BECAUSE IT MAY MESS UP MY PARTITIONS...
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

I have the same problem but here's the steps I've taken so far:
1. removed the drive and installed in a different machine
2. drive would not boot - same as with the original computer
3. reinstalled XP - now boots in new computer
4. reinstalled the drive in the original computer - will NOT boot!! same boot.ini message and looping restarts!
5. back to other computer - boots fine!

could this be a bios problem or a motherboard problem with that original machine??
I can't get the CD to boot at all. Why would some XP cds boot and others won't if they're all full versions? Thanks for any help.

I also have the same problem.  It locks up on chkdsk.  The fixmbr did not work.  It will not boot to safe mode or anything.  I tried to renstall windows but everytime it goes to check the disk it hangs up.  It will let be surf around under the recovery counsel a little.  I ma having Maxtor send out a new drive and hope that it works.  Maybe it will be able to see it as a secondary drive and I will be a able to pull stuff off of it.

This mays ound dumb as all get out but I was having problems with my hard drive and I put it in the freezer to tighten up the breatings and then back in the machine (of course after letting it defrost) and the bearings were tight enough that I was able to get all information off of the drive before I had to scrap it.

It sounds dumb but it worked!

Sorry I had lots of typos in above, I meant that it tightened up the BEARINGS.

This mays sound dumb as all get out but I was having problems with my hard drive and I put it in the freezer to tighten up the beatings and then back in the machine (of course after letting it defrost) and the bearings were tight enough that I was able to get all information off of the drive before I had to scrap it.

It sounds dumb but it worked!

There is a website where you can download a bootable version of windows from a cd. If you have a cd burner on a friends computer go to this site. http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/. you will have to do a little reading but it is not too hard. Once you burn the CD you will be able to boot to a virtual Windows xp and have access to all of your files and you will also be able to do some repairs.

It may also be a bios problem. If you can get into the bios look for a setting that say. Set default or reset to dafault configuration (something to that effect) if this does not help all newer motherboards have a bios reset jumper on the motherboard. If you have your manual check this out. If you don't and you know your motherboard search the internet for a manual. If you don't know your motherboard and you have a name brand computer (ie: HP, Compaq...) go to the PC makers website and look for manuals for your model.

It was by sheer chance I saw this thread.  

I had exactly the same problem as you.  It started two days ago.  I tend to hibernate my PC due to all the windows I have open, and I did this for about 10 days without rebooting.  During those 10 days I made numerous un-installations of programs which I wanted to clear out AND also did some windows xp updates, however I never accepted any of the "Please reboot in order for your settings to  be updated".  I should really have done this a few days and followed them after the un-installs and upgrades.

Anyway, two days ago I plugged in a new USB camera device and the whole system froze.  No mouse, no keyboard no nothing so I too switched it off at the mains.

WHen I switched it back on again, it would load into the black xp screen and moving colour status and would then suddenly my system would reboot.  This would go into a loop like you explained.  I narrowed this down to 3 things:
1. My hard drive was giving way - because it made a clunking sound prior to the reboot
2. During all the un-installs and xp upgrades, certain key files might have been deleted which I accepted as part of the un-install (one particular file name I vaguely remember) and therefore could not load cos of the missing file
3. As a result of the system switching off, perhaps xp still thinks it should load into hibernation mode as I never properly came out of it because I switched off my system with something like 6 or 7 screens open

ANyway, I tried everything like you did, running safe mode, repair console, nothing worked, it still went into a loop.  What made things slightly worse was that even when I got into dos mode, I couldnt copy certain folders because they were protected with my permissions and furthermore it was a bit messy copying long file named folders.

I even started repairing win xp through the win xp install CD, but this threw up more problems.  It says some file was missing D... something something.  Tried reinstalling/repairing three times, same crap after 2h.  So I did a fresh install on the second partition of my d:

NOTE: YOU DO NOT NEED TO FORMAT YOUR DRIVE TO INSTALL XP.  you can install it on the same partition but in another folder.  But just to be sure, install onto another partition.  I THOUGHT I made the mistake of losing all my outlook emails and favourites cos these are usually kept it c:\documents and settings\username\application\outlook\etc and I thought a reinstallation would overwrite this with new empty files.

In the end I realisted it didnt.  Dont forget you  have to install outlook through office, so just by reinstalling xp will not in itself overwrite your outlook.pst file.  Anyway, if like me, you have set permission on that particular user folder, you will have to disable file sharing otherwise it will say access denied.  I wont dwell on this otherwise it will confuse you and chances are not many people will protect their folders.

So to summarise, reinstall xp on another paritition as you wont format it and you wont lose it.  BUT you will see the when you switch on the pc, it gives you the option of which version of windows you want to boot into, your old unworkable one or the new one (by default).  Good luck, hope this works, cos I managed to recover all my data.

Dan

Having read the above again, I wouldnt use fixMBR.  Master Boot Record has nothing to do with the loading or fixing of XP.  MBR relates to hard drive partitions and if something screws up.  YOu will know when your mbr is screwed cos ur hard drive wont even boot, u will get error msgs soon after starting.  

You will risk losing data if you run that option.  Use the method I described above, its tried and tested and still fresh, as this happened to me only 2 days ago and Im 75% there to getting a full recovery now.

Let us know how you proceeded.

I shut of my computer by switching off the main electricity because the system was dead  Now when I am trying to reboot my Windows XP Pro i am alway getting  screen that offer the user to start boot normally, or last good known boot, or safe modus, or safe modus via network .But just safe modus work .I format and reinstall several time harddisk but have the same problem. I would  appreciate if somebody could help me.

Thanks
sam

well. i agree with with Ey143 comment, , first you can try repair option, (you will lose nothing). Note that if your Computer Power Supply is bad  (or if you have combo keyboard and wireless mouse, and one uses usb port and another ps2 port on the same switch) than you can get the same problems.

saman140,
I had the exact problem and I used the 6-disk startup floppies that you can download from the MS site. After booting with those floppies and performing a semi installation everything went back to normal.
You can get them at this site:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310994

Interesting beko, can you comment further on the combo wireless keyboard and mouse, because I have one of those, CTX to be exact, with one receiver for both.  That could also have  been my problem,  because the same thing i.e. system freezes whenever I disconnect any of my other USB devices to connect a different USB device.  perhaps my keyboard and mouse USB receiver has something to do with it.  Would appreciate some more comments.

I am helping a friend with his computer. Safemode or any mode just sends it to an endless reboot loop (reboots after black screen with white lines sometimes I get lucky and still see the Windows logo before it reboots). Thought it might be a virus but it's not.  Took out his HD and tested the HD in my computer to run a virus scan.Tried all options before formatting the HD. Did a burn-in test and it passed. After a whole day of testing, my friend gave me a go signal to do a clean install/format the hd.  I did. Thought to myself, hey, this should do it. Oh no, despite a clean install, this endless reboot loop still happens.  What is the problem? Anyone with an answer? I don't need the 6-disk startup since he has a bootable CD.  This is a first for me.  I even tried installing/format with Windows 2000 and still the same results. Tried several times, sometimes would not even finish formatting it would reboot. Hope someone has an answer.
Thanks!

1. What is involved in  a burn-in-test?

2. Did ur hard drive make a clunking sound immediately before the reboot (and motor spin down)

My system would reboot at the point that win xp would almost be fully loaded, just prior to the user name entry.  I deduce from this it has something to do with the update of all the patches and the settings or something and not my HD despite the clunk sound, cos i works fine now after the reinstall.

zad886,
all I can say is that I had the SAME problem and I had a bootable CD. Installed the HD in a different computer, reinstalled XP, logged in on the other computer, everything. Then I put it back into the original computer and it didn't work, just like yours is doing.
Try the 6 startup discs. Can't hurt and I'm telling you that was what fixed mine!!!

To ey143:
1) burn-in test was just a thorough testing of the maxtor drive
2) had a clunk sound...yes, definitely!

To vmlinuz73:
I guess it wouldn't hurt to try.  I will do that now.

Thank you both for your response.  Will let you know what happens.

Reassuring to know that you also had a clunk sound, means that my HD is still in working order then.  In the past, I used to use Western Digital Cavier drives and they were notorius for having clunking sounds before they went dead.

i guess something instructs the hard drive to spin down when he reboots at that moment of crashing.

Im more interested to know abt beko's comments on wireless mouse and keyboard though.

zad,
I hope it works for you. I wouldn't recommend it if I wasn't sure that it solved my problems - and your problem sounds identical to mine. I'd just like to know what caused it. Be sure to let us know how it works out, if at all.

:( I've tried installing several times..a couple of times error right on Disk 1 and then a few on Disk 4.  Disk 1- unable to find biosinfo.inf error 4096  Disk 4 - something about a corrupt file (did a chkdsk /f on floppy and found no problem). I just can't get it to work.

I saw another suggestion. Boot with Win98 disk and go into I386 folder of WinXP in the cdrom. I ended up with  "setup error... could not find place for swap file" when Windows was starting setup. So then i tried changing the video card...just maybe. No luck.

RAM tested fine. Could this possibly be a motherboard needing replacement?  I saw one of the capacitors near the CPU with a few brown stuff on top.  And a couple that seem to have a curved top instead of flat.  Should i tell my friend that his motherboard needs to be replaced?

my friend does not even know what caused it.  he says his girlfriend uses it more and she doesn't know what caused it. Such a nightmare!

i dont know how you can boot with a win98 disk, cos unless you have your FAT as FAT32 and not NTFS, your system will not even see your hard drive after booting with a disk.

I dont know why you are unable to reinstall win xp (as a fresh new install on say a new partition drive).  That should cure the problem.

I even tried repairing XP, but this would crash at some point towards the end of the install, saying some file was missing from the CD and wouldnt even give me the chance to cancel it or do anything.  

Install to a new partition and keep the existing win xp intact.

hi ey143!

i formatted my drive in win98 that's how it was able to recognize the drive.

i've reformatted the drive so many times and partitioned...installed winxp in first partition...no luck!  there is no existing winxp to keep intact since i had formatted the whole hard drive.
 
thanks.

Well, I'm sorry it didn't work for you! I would suggest trying to get a newer version of your bios and flashing it just to be sure. If you can get 98 installed and running but can't get XP to install over it, switch to Linux!! I used to love XP but now I use Slackware and I really can't stand Windows too much anymore, especially with problems like that one. Keep us posted on your situation.

Thanks!

I really want to be able to upgrade the bios but i just can't find it anywhere online. it's an AZZA 693BTX motherboard.  I've already emailed AZZA and have not heard back from them.  :(

make a backup of your mail and start reinstalling windows because reinstalling will just overwrites the windows directory. i did it once! but remember to backup your data!

All right all you techs, here is my problem. I have tried to make a bootable XP Pro CD after doing the slipstream as shown on these pages. I was successful in that the CD worked but here is the weird thing that I need help with. The CD will boot any desktop and do the install just fine but when I try to use it on either one of my laptops, it will not boot. The bios finds the bootable CD but then hangs at the screen that says “ Boot CD Rom Type: Non Emulated Booting” and will not ever move on to the screen that says press any key to boot from CD. I have followed the instructions on the pages that tell how to burn a bootable CD using Nero. I have the latest version of Nero and there is no problem with any of my hardware. Like I said, the CD will boot a desktop just fine but will not boot to the install screen on either laptop. I have wasted around 50 CD’s trying to figure this out and I give up. It will take someone smarter than me to figure this one out. I will tell you that I am not a newby. I have over ten years in the computer business so I do know a little about computers. This one has stumped me, though. Here is the info on the laptops. One is a Compaq that is about one year old. The other is also one year old but it is a Gateway. Both have the latest bios upgrades on them. I have tried to boot the laptops with my original CD from Microsoft and they both boot just fine so the problem is in the process of burning the CD after the upgrade. The boot image file I am using must be ok or the CD wouldn’t boot the desktops. I don’t know if the problem lies with the laptops or the CD. Hope someone can help with this as I need to upgrade both laptops to Sp1. And yes, I know that I can apply the SP1 upgrade to the laptops but I would like to find the problem with the booting. Thanks and I will be awaiting your replies.

ok im having the same problem on startup it goes onto the windows loading and then theres this blue screen for a split second! and then it reboots over again, i have no idea why this happened but a manual shutdown

Lifeless. If you are using Nero to burn your cd's, you need to be sure that the "Load segment of sectors" is set to 0000. That's four zeros. I had been using a setting of 07c0 and that is what was causing my problem. Go to the URL below and you will find step by step instructions. Goos luck.  Rasbastas  

                          http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=297

I just wanted to thank you all for your effort. I've been trying to install WinXP Pro on my newly bought computer all afternoon with no progress, but then I tried the FIXMBR fix and boom! Now I'm installing it! I love you!