First of all, thanks for any help you can give me.

I went away for a couple of days with a fully functioning desktop, and came back today to one that didn't work. This is my girlfriend's computer, so I'm not exactly sure of the history, but I know it's functioned fine to date, aside from a small disk formatting problem a few weeks which was fixed by a simple tool.

Basically, I can't get windows xp to start at all. There's two versions installed, and it gives a choice each time the comp starts, but I've never had cause to use the second- either way, neither works.

[Sorry for typing out everything, I just don't want to leave anything out.]

The main one brings this text screen:



Then I'm given the following options:



Each of the Safe Mode choices brings up a string of, I guess, commands at the bottom of the same screen:



Then it restarts.

The other two options are easier, they just have a little progress bar that moves for a minute, freezes, then restarts after about ten minutes.

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So I tried to repair Windows from the disc, using the tutorial on this site, but as it's repairing it tells me it cannot delete a number of files:



I have to skip.

The same thing happens for:
alert_1.gro
BCAITDI.SYS
BCAMHWAC.DLL
cabr.exe
daas_td.dll
dx3r.exe
dxar.exe
fail_1.gro
gen_1.gro
jdbc.exe
ka_1.gro
license.txt
mba_1.gro
NIC-3Com.MIB
oakley.dll
OEMSETUP.INF
partno
raschap.dll
readme.txt
rwu.gro
std_1.gro
UNDMINT.EXE
UNDMIW2K.EXE
imeskdic.dll
imeskf.dll
multibox.dll
sotkey.dll
imeskdic.dic
hwxjpn.dll

Then, finally, it fails when this happens:



I can't get this to work, so I'm forced to quit.

It's very important that I get this computer up and running without losing any data- it has a lot of stuff that can't be replicated (I know, always back up...). I'd be massively, hugely, "wow, that's big"ly grateful for any help.

You will be able to run this on the computer if you can use another one to download and save to a disc, floppy or CDR

It's possible that a memory error is causing this

Click this for a guide to using Memtest

Click this to download Memtest

Run it overnight if possible

Thank you very much, I'm downloading it now.

I ran 50+ tests and it passed them all. Is that a good or bad sign?

Good in one way, though nothing to change the install

If you have two CD ROM drives in the PC try using that, check the disc is spotless, or try using another disc, using the product key for the PC is the important thing

Well we can't find the other copy of windows, but the one we were using looks perfect but it still won't work. I'm not sure how I'd get it to boot from the second CD drive though.

Is there anything it could be aside from memory or a scuffed CD?

Thanks.

Have you opened a PC case before

Yes.

Unplug any printers, scanners, remove the USB leads for them, leave it so you only have the monitor and keyboard and mouse plugged in to the tower

Remove the soundcard and all but one memory stick, you can remove the video card as well if you also have onboard graphics

Try the repair then

Another option is to install this hard drive as the slave drive in a working PC, transfer the data from the slave drive to the working PC, then put the drive back in its own PC and format the drive

Thanks, I'll try that.

If you need to install the drive as a slave drive, double check the data is on the other PC and check it after you have saved it to CDR / DVDR discs