Windows XP load screen and the a BSOD?

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donkey33

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 8, 2004
Messages
226
My PC has been working fine for months and months with no added hardware or software really. Maybe the odd software but nothing to trigger this problem.

The other night, it was running very very slow for some reason and I got really ticked off so I just powered it off manually. Not a good idea but when I've done that in the past, its moved on fine.

Next thing, the damn thing just keeps restarting on me time after time after time.

I get to the options screen (choose safe mode, load windows normally, last configuration, etc) and have tried them all but to no avail.

How it goes is it gets to the Windows XP load screen where that little colored bar at the bottom scrolls. Stays there for 5 seconds or so and then a BSOD flashes up very quickly (half a second) and the PC reboots.

I've done nothing to it and don't know why. I can't even start the PC in safe mode to get it running as it just does the same thing.

Can anyone help me with this. It's never happened before and the BSOD isn't up for long enough to get a look at it and see what the problem is.

Thanks
 
donkey33 said:
The other night, it was running very very slow for some reason and I got really ticked off so I just powered it off manually. Not a good idea but when I've done that in the past, its moved on fine.
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You live and you learn. You've probably messed up the file system and Windows is unable to access the files necessary for bootup. Can you start up Recovery Console? If not, boot the computer with a Windows 2000/XP install CD and go into Recovery Console and at the prompt, do "chkdsk c: /r" without the quotes. That should fix the file system problems you have and should be able to boot with Windows after it's done.
 
Thanks for the help.

I'll definately try this.

How do I start up the recovery console though? Am not sure there.
 
When you boot to the xp install disc, it gives you options for how to set it up. the last option is the recovery console. It's been a while since i've had to do it so, that may not be entirely accurate. but that's where it is. also, if you try safe mode, watch the files loading and see what it stops on.
 
I got into the recovery console but wasn't sure of what to do.

I tried the fixboot command but it didn't help fix the problem. I also tried copying some files across (NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM) from the CD but it wouldn't allow me.

The fixboot command apparently fixed the boot sector but it still just restarts after the load screen.

If I reinstall windows over the old installation, would I lose any files, etc?

I'm stuck for idea's on how to get this running again. It seems simple and probably is for some but I can't work it out.

Any help is appreaciated.

Thanks
 
Did you ever use a third party program to change the picture in the XP start-up screens? I did that once and it worked fine for a while, then I started getting what happened to you. Can't remember how I fixed it though.
 
Xaeon said:
Did you ever use a third party program to change the picture in the XP start-up screens? I did that once and it worked fine for a while, then I started getting what happened to you. Can't remember how I fixed it though.
Click to expand...

No. I didn't change anything at all. That's why I was surprised this happened.
 
Ok.

I could have a bigger problem than I thought and really need some help with this.

I had two drives in my PC. One 40GB (with the OS on it) and an 80GB (used for storage).

I thought I'd install the OS on the 80GB drive and then I could transfer all my important files off my 40GB drive, reformat it and then install it back on there.

Thing is, I'm at the XP setup screen to choose which partition to install it on and am a bit worried at what I'm seeing.

I have my D: partition (80GB) which has 37GB space free which sounds about right but it also shows my C: partition as having 40GB free space. It also says there is no OS installed on it.

This means there are no files on there right and I've lost everything? This is shattering as I had some important stuff on there.

What should I do? Could it be wrong or just showing up like that because the drive has failed in some way?

When I go to the next step to install on my 80GB, I get a message saying that the 40GB drive is unformatted, damaged or formatted with a file system that is incompatible with XP and needs to be formatted before installing XP on the 40GB.

The file system is NTFS but it's not recognising it.

I'm stuck and don't know what to do. Any help will be greatly appreaciated.
 
It's all cool now :)

I got it working.

Just ran CHKDSK from the recovery console.

Thanks to all who posted here.
 
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