Wheatking Posted January 5, 2006 Posted January 5, 2006 Well, it looks like I've sabotaged my own computer. I was running MSCONFIG and trying to eliminate some memory hogs from my Start-up menu and when I restarted my system to accept the changes, I get a screen telling me that Windows did not start successfully. I then get 4 choices: 1. Safe Mode 2. Safe Mode with Command Prompt 3. Safe Mode with Networking 4. Start Windows normally I've tried to boot the computer in all 4 of the above modes but Windows fails to load and I end up at the same screen aksing me what mode I want to boot in. DAMMIT! I'm running Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2 on a Gateway PC with a 2.0Ghz Pentium 4, and 768MB of RAM. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I would hate to do a complete reinstall and risk losing everything on my hard drive. Thanks!
LIGHTNING UK! Posted January 5, 2006 Posted January 5, 2006 blimey you must have really killed it for safe mode not to work! You could try the 'last known good' option - if you're given one. Failing that, stick the XP cd in the drive, boot it and then select 'repair'.
Wheatking Posted January 5, 2006 Author Posted January 5, 2006 (edited) I could have sworn I was only eliminating non-essential programs from the Start-up menu, however that is apparently not the case. Believe it or not, I've already tried the "REPAIR" option and all I get is a DOS prompt. WTF? Tried the "Last Known Good" option as well. Sends me right back to the screen telling me to boot in Safe Mode. Maybe I'll try to convince the wife that it REALLY IS the time to buy a new computer..... Thanks for your response Lightning! Edited January 5, 2006 by Wheatking
chewy Posted January 5, 2006 Posted January 5, 2006 I could have sworn I was only eliminating non-essential programs from the Start-up menu, however that is apparently not the case. Believe it or not, I've already tried the "REPAIR" option and all I get is a DOS prompt. WTF? Tried the "Last Known Good" option as well. Sends me right back to the screen telling me to boot in Safe Mode. Maybe I'll try to convince the wife that it REALLY IS the time to buy a new computer..... Thanks for your response Lightning! You have to pass up the first repairs and wait for windows to see the old install and then you can run XP as a repair disk. There is a fixboot command at the C: ?
LIGHTNING UK! Posted January 5, 2006 Posted January 5, 2006 Yeah, you don't want that automated system recovery, or recovery console. It's an actual option once the installer realises you already have XP installed. It basically installs itself over the top again. Your programs and that will be ok but you might wipe some custom settings. At least then you could backup your work and then do a proper rebuild.
Wheatking Posted January 6, 2006 Author Posted January 6, 2006 Won't be able to play around with it until after work tonight, but thanks for the help guys.
kevdriver Posted January 6, 2006 Posted January 6, 2006 Nice way to convince wifey you need new computer though Wheatking......................
Wheatking Posted January 6, 2006 Author Posted January 6, 2006 Thanks! Next, I have to screw up the TV so I can convince her we need a HD set!
Wheatking Posted January 6, 2006 Author Posted January 6, 2006 Looks like I have to re-format the whole drive since I just got a message saying that the C: drive is too full or damagedand must be reformatted. All I wanted was to speed up the whole start-up process! I swear to God!!! MEMO TO SELF: Always back-up the important shit........
Jerseyguy Posted January 6, 2006 Posted January 6, 2006 ok i just had the same problem with my kids system...i didnt kill it she did... i didnt type this but its what i did to get her system to run again...and it did work. good luck restart the Computer to the Recovery Console To restart the system so that it boots to the Recovery Console, perform the following steps: 1. Insert the Windows XP CD. 2. Configure the computer to boot from the CD drive. The prompt Press any key to boot from CD... appears. 3. Press the space bar. The system will start the Windows XP setup process and at the bottom of the screen the following prompt briefly appears: Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver? The Welcome to Setup screen appears. 4. If Windows XP does not natively support the hard drive controller that is in the system, press the <F6> key and proceed. NOTE NOTE: Windows XP supports most hard drive controllers natively. If yours is supported, skip to step 6. 5. If you pressed the <F6> key in the last step, press the <S> key when prompted and then load the appropriate driver off the floppy disk with the hard drive controller driver. The Welcome to Setup screen appears. 6. Press the <R> key. The Recovery Console starts and presents a numbered list of Windows installations that it detected on the hard drive. On most systems there will be just one choice. 7. Press the number corresponding to the installation you are troubleshooting and then press the <Enter> key. 8. Type the administrator password to log onto the installation. If there is no administrator password, press the <Enter> key. The Recovery Console command prompt appears. Run the CHKDSK /R command To run the CHKDSK /R command, perform the following steps: 1. Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD drive. 2. Boot the system from the CD drive. The prompt Press any key to boot from CD... appears. 3. Press the space bar. The Welcome to Setup dialog box appears. 4. Press the <R> key to repair Windows by using the Recovery Console. 5. Select the number that is associated with the Windows installation you want to log on to, then type the administrator password (or press press the <Enter> key if no administrator password exists). 6. From Recovery Console, type the following command: CHKDSK /R 7. Press the <Enter> key. 8. From the Recovery Console, type the following command: exit 9. Press the <Enter> key to restart your computer. 10. If the system still will not boot to the hard drive, attempt to run the CHKDSK /R command again. Depending on the corruption on the hard drive, it may take several tries to achieve a complete repair.
Wheatking Posted January 6, 2006 Author Posted January 6, 2006 I tried using the Recovery Console when all else failed and it wouldn't even recognize that XP was installed at all. All I got was a DOS C:\ prompt. The damn drive is now in the process of formatting itself anyway. I guess I really didn't need all of those Top Secret documents detailing who was behind the Kennedy assassination anyway......
kirk1701™ Posted January 6, 2006 Posted January 6, 2006 I tried using the Recovery Console when all else failed and it wouldn't even recognize that XP was installed at all. All I got was a DOS C:\ prompt. The damn drive is now in the process of formatting itself anyway. I guess I really didn't need all of those Top Secret documents detailing who was behind the Kennedy assassination anyway...... You could have hooked the hard drive up to another computer and booted from the OS in that computer to access your files on your hard drive.
Wheatking Posted January 6, 2006 Author Posted January 6, 2006 You could have hooked the hard drive up to another computer and booted from the OS in that computer to access your files on your hard drive. I had considered that but there was nothing crucial to the survival of the human race on there, just some stuff on the drive that I'm not sure I backed-up anywhere else.
Jerseyguy Posted January 6, 2006 Posted January 6, 2006 you were in the start up section of msconfig right? i just looked in mine and there is nothing there that would kill a o/s... just wondering what you did is all...
Wheatking Posted January 6, 2006 Author Posted January 6, 2006 Yup, was just in MSCONFIG un-checking crap that I didn't want in the Start-up menu. I was careful to avoid disabling anything associated with Windows (but not careful enough apparently). Once I restarted my computer to accept the changes, everything went nuts. Maybe there is something else at work here....a virus maybe....who knows.
lfcrule1972 Posted January 6, 2006 Posted January 6, 2006 I guess I really didn't need all of those Top Secret documents detailing who was behind the Kennedy assassination anyway...... It was Cuba apparently......
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