Topic: Booting Problem

[twiggy]

Hello there not sure if this is a hardware or software problem so i have posted it here.

My freind has just rang and said there is a problem when she try's to start windows. So i went threw it with her on the phone. Now i seems that the computer was not shut down proberly as it says so 'windows was not shut down proberly' then it gives you two options to start windows with the last known working configeratio and start windows normaly. Now both optiontions boot up the windows loading screen and the bar moves across ect, ect. then it go's to a blank screen just toaly blank and stays there?
What could this be and whats the best way to go about it?

Thanks, mark

sorry for the poor spelling im typing fast

[Sandra]

Hi Mark, I think that its trying to do a scandisk and wont complete for some reason.
Can you get into Safe Mode and run scandisk from inside there ?
Failing that boot from a 98 boot floppy and run scandisk (or maybe its chkdisk) from the C: prompt  

I am moving this to software as I think its definately software not hardware :doggie:

[twiggy]

Hello there rite, just got a call back (by the way she's running windows xp pro) she says she gets a blue screen now saying one of windows registerey files then name's it (long number) is deleted, moved or un-writerable. so as far as i can tell from that is that one of the systems boot files has been deleted either by a virus or manuel and windowsw can't boot with out it? do's that seem a sensible answer? i told her then to totaly re-insatll windows from scrath as she dosn't think there are any importnat files on there. Or is there any other way around it?

Thanks as always Sandra

[Sandra]

If shes on XP and can get into system restore she could try going back a few days to an earlier restore point although as it wont let her go to "last known good configuration" it sounds like that option may not be available  

[ketamininja]

It sounds like the hard drive could be dying, but at this point its anyones guess...

A reinstall of Windows with updated drivers could take an hour or so for an inexperienced person, so its probably the best option rather than snooping around for the answer.

However, if you can get the blue screen details (all numbers and essential messages - ALL NUMBERS they look like 0x03e0df39) post it here and we can try to help more.

[Reno]

SAFEMODE
press F8 repeatedly as the machine is starting up, and go into the option safemode. If your lucky and it gets to the desktop, look for the system restore option.

if she can't run system restore from safe mode, unless she plans to learn how to install or repair a crapped out winxp installation shes not going to get far. I suggest spending the 30E and getting a repair shop or a friend to give it a look.