windows startup problems

windows xp on a continous loop at startup, the selection for.. start windows normally, safe mode, last known saved config... etc. etc.. and any options pressed just restarts and brings it back to that screen...

any help?!

 

Woah...

Repair the installation (if you have an XP disc) or reinstall Windows.

 

yeah thats what i thought... it's not my comp, its my friend's.. she said they always hold the power button down to shut off b/c they don't wana wait.. so i'm thinking somethings corrupted and the only way prob restore cd/ reformat?!....

would it be possible that its a defective hardware?, although the comp is a few years old.....

also if i was to reformat it, could i put the hd in an external casing to plug into a nother computer to dl the important documents before reformat?

tnakz..

 

Can you get to System Properties in Safe Mode? If so, click Advanced/Start up and Recovery Settings/System Failure, then uncheck Automatically restart.

 

Sounds like it.

Possible, but I just have a hunch it's a problem with the data on the disc... especially in light of what you said about holding down the power off button.

Sure... if you have an HD enclosure of the right type lying around. If not, then you can maybe use something like this: http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

 

You need to install windows again, the boot sector is corrupted. People who turn off via the power button are very likely to have viruses as well, this could be the problem.(they tend to have no firewall and no up to date virus scanner because they know nothing about computers)

Either way you could take it out and get the data off it or you could do a non-destructive install of windows which would allow you to get into the drive and back up everything (documents, pictures, music etc.)before you do an install with a full format.

I've done this a few times for others and it has on every occasion been because of a virus/trojan and nothing has been lost with a non-destructive install. After copying over their files to back up, the very large amount of porn usually reveals the likely source of the virus

 

i'm all on vista.. but i have a recovery cd for my HP that used to be xp.. would that recovery cd work? for some random desktop xp ?

 

if you have xp disk boot it up go into recovery console and run check disk

also if keep loop try hit f8 bring up boot menu and disable automatic restart so you can see what blue screen say my guess most likely unmountable boot volume

 

You don't really mean that, do you? If the boot sector is corrupt, you would never even see anything resembling windows starting up--for that matter, there would be no reboot.

If you mean the masterboot record, it does one thing--it reads and loads the partition boot record. If you mean the partition boot record, it reads the root directory and loads ntldr (or its Vista equivalent).

The symptoms being described have nothing to do with boot records.

The problem is likely caused by one of three causes--corrupt file system, corrupt driver, or corrupt registry.

andyasselin is correct in suggesting loading a recovery console as a first plan of attack. It is easiest to do and actually has a fairly high success rate since a good portion of these problems is related to corrupted file systems.

A corrupt driver is less likely since it does not sound like your friend recently installed hardware--though a damaged driver file could result from the corrupted file system, or by turning the computer off improperly (uh oh).

More likely than a corrupt driver, though, is a corrupt registry. When you log off your computer, Windows unloads the registry and saves the various registry hives in separate files. When you shut down as your friend does--the registry is still open and in use and is often damaged.

In this case, the choice LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIGURATION may save you by loading a backup from the last previous good start up. Failing that, dropping the drive in a second machine and manually copying registry hives from the system restore points to the appropriate place can get you up and running.

jl1989,
The HP recovery cd may work in getting you into a recovery console depending on the nature of the cd....some are images that simply reinstall windows, others are Windows OEM disks. It really depends. I gave up trying to keep track of which OEM does what to its disks long ago.

Drop your HP disk in a working computer and see what it looks like--is there a folder heirarchy with a i386 directory?

 

yes there is i386 directory,

lets say if i was lazy... could i just copy and paste the windows folder from a working xp computer over?

 

no.

When Windows XP is installed, it installs a very specific configuration that is different for each computer--partly for anti-piracy purposes and partly for stability.

Doing as you suggest would render your computer completely incapable of starting without a reinstallation.

Do the following

Step 1

If you have a windows xp cd, start the computer and boot with it and choose recovery console.

Then follow the instructions beginning at STEP 2

If you do not have a Windows XP CD, do the following


download RC.iso from the following link:

http://www.thecomputerparamedic.com/rc.iso

You need to burn this image to a CD and boot your computer with it--this is different than burning a file to a CD. If you do not know how to burn an ISO image, then download the following program to another Windows XP machine, install it.

make certain you download the proper installation for your version of windows. Open MY COMPUTER, choose HELP > ABOUT. Note the service pack and get the appropriate version of the iso burner power toy

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

After installation, reboot, then right click the RC.iso file you downloaded above and choose COPY IMAGE TO CD.

Then reboot your broken PC with that CD in the CD-ROM drive.

This will give you a recovery console to use to run

Insert the cd into the non-functioning PC



STEP 2

When boot begins, a windows setup will appear to start, but you will be taken to a recovery console.

You will need to select your windows installation by pressing a number, most likely 1

Windows will ask you for a password

If you have XP home, press enter...there is no password

If you have XP Pro, you need to enter the password you set when you installed your machine with XP Pro.

After entering the password, you will find yourself at a command prompt that looks like this

c:\windows

type
chkdsk /r
<enter>

follow the prompts, then when it is complete, remove the CD

type

EXIT

<enter>

the machine will reboot

Did that fix it?

 

Yes it is possible to come the boot choice screen if the boot sector is corrupted and if you read his original post he said he'd tried "last known good configuration".

Install again I would say, but it may just be missing or corrupt ntldr or ntdetect.com files - but how did this happen, innocent problem or virus?

If you start up the recovery console with an XP cd try:

C:\WINDOWS>FIXBOOT

or copy the ntldr and ntdetect.com files from CD:

COPY(your DVD drive):\i386\NTLDR C:
COPY (your DVD drive):\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:

If this works give that computer a damn good scanning afterwards.

 

I agree with what gerryf19 says but also make sure you run hard disk daig on to make sure hard disk is okay


what brand of disk is it ?

 

I'm sorry but you are wrong on this. Without the master boot record or the partition boot record, your hardware cannot locate the windows installation to give you a menu

Ah, missed that. Thank you for pointing that out.

It may come to that, but as a last resort

Once again, you will never reach the windows menu if these files are missing. They are responsible for loading the menu (as well as other things)

This command (fixboot) repairs the partition boot record and best practices requires you deisgnate the partition. Though not necessary with a single partition drive, it is wise to include it.

Either way, neither of these steps is necessary because they are repairing a part of the computer that is not broken.

As for a good scan--it certainly is not a bad idea.

 

To an extent, I agree with this. However, you are jumping to a major conclusion, which could be totally off base. Maybe these people are just really impatient, and don't want to shut down, but when it comes to infections they are locked down.

I agree that some people are impatient if the computer takes too long to shut down. If it takes an excessive amount of time, viruses could be the cause. However, simply executing a hard shut down will not give you viruses. In fact, it is really not as bad for the machine as it is made out to be. But if this is done every time they turn it off, there are likely corruptions.

Also, GerryF is right, you really shouldn't say "You need to ____ because _____is obviously ____" even if you are mostly sure, nothing is 100% if you can't see the issue in person. In this case, as previously mentioned, the boot sector is not the issue.