[allie mc]

I have an HP notebook with Windows XP that will not completely boot up. It boots to the blue Windows logo screen but won't go any farther. I have not been able to boot into safe mode either.

I don't have the XP system disc to boot from, but I do have 6 system recovery discs provided by HP. I believe that using these discs will cause me to loose any data on the hard drive.

Harry, please lend me your expertise to get this thing going.

Thanks,
Allie

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shutdown your computer
turn it on
press or tap F8
choose safemode

go to start/run/type this in chkdsk /r /click ok
restart your computer

notice the space between the R and /
see if that helps

[Mr Freeze]

shutdown your computer
turn it on
press or tap F8
choose safemode

go to start/run/type this in chkdsk /r /click ok
restart your computer

notice the space between the R and /
see if that helps

[jaxisland]

I have not been able to boot into safe mode either

Mr Freeze I dont believe thats going to work.

[Mr Freeze]

since its a HP you could try to press F10 or F12 at start-up
it should go to recovery....

[allie mc]

Thanks for the reply.

When you say that "it should start recovery", what should I expect it to do?

I had already tried F10 - diagnostic tools, which tests for hardware issues. There were none.

F12 - boot from LAN finally gave me the option to boot into safe mode but the same thing happened as when trying to boot into normal mode - blue windows logo screen and nothing else. F2 - Setup goes into the BIOS setup utility, but I'm not familiar enough to know what to do there.

[Mr Freeze]

did you ever create any recovery discs
i have had the option of creating 13 recovery cds or 3 dvds
choose the dvds

but thats an option HP gives you
the recovery cds are good for your HP only

do you have any warranty for your computer
the warranty replace my harddrive.....
other than that it doesnt look good for you

[allie mc]

The warranty has expired.

The machine came with 6 recovery discs provided by HP. I was hoping there was an easier solution than using them. I understand it will wipe out any data and I'll have to download operating system and software updates since the discs restore factory settings from ? years ago.

I saw another topic where it gave instructions to boot from the Windows XP disc and it will repair without losing data. Will that work if I can get my hands on a disc? (This is my friends machine who doesn't live near me and doesn't have the disc with her.)

[dsenette]

yes...if you can get an XP disk of the same version (and service pack level) of the one originally installed on the system...you can do a repair install which might help

but first...try to run chkdsk on the system....the instructions bellow will tell you how to do that from recovery console (step two will tell you how to get to recovery console without an XP disk)

If you have your Windows XP disk

• Insert your Windows XP disk into your computer and reboot
• Make sure the PC is set to run from the CD as the primary boot device.
  NOTE: You do this by setting your PC to boot to the CD-ROM in BIOS (enter bios by pressing f1, f2 or del key during memory count up, then search for boot order, and set the CD as the first boot device)
• When the PC boots, it will boot from the CD...after the first several screens load, you will be given a choice to choose R for Recovery Console. You will be asked to log in.
  NOTE: For Windows XP Home, there is not password, just hit ENTER. For Windows XP pro, ask whomever set up the machine what password they used.

When you see the Recovery console C:\WINDOWS prompt continue to section 3 (Running "ChkDsk")

If you DO NOT have your Windows XP disk

• Download RC.ISO from Here.
• Now burn this ISO image to a CD and boot your computer with it.
  NOTE: Keep in mind that this is different than burning a file to a CD-ROM. If you do not know how to burn an ISO image, then download CDBurnerXP Pro to another Windows machine and install it. Then go Here for instructions for burning the ISO image
• Once the CD is created, place it in the defunct computer
• Then reboot your broken PC with that CD in the CD-ROM drive.
• Make sure the PC is set to run from the CD as the primary boot device.
  NOTE: You do this by setting your PC to boot to the CD-ROM in BIOS (enter bios by pressing f1, f2 or del key during memory count up, then search for boot order, and set the CD as the first boot device)
• When the PC boots, it will boot from the CD...after the first several screens load, you will be given a choice to choose R for Recovery Console. You will be asked to log in.
  NOTE: For Windows XP Home, there is not password, just hit ENTER. For Windows XP pro, ask whomever set up the machine what password they used.

Running "ChkDsk"

• At the Recovery console C:\WINDOWS prompt, type
  

  chkdsk /r

• Press ENTER
• Let this scan run UNINTERUPTED untill completed (30 min or so depending on the drive)
• Report any errors in your next reply
• Once the scan is complete, Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Recovery Console.
• Your computer will now restart, boot from the CD again and continue with the next steps.

[jaxisland]

If you could get a disc then yes you can do a recovery without losing data. Also if you call HP they may send you a disc for your machine. I have had to do that before.

Edited by jaxisland, 14 September 2007 - 07:21 AM.

[Mr Freeze]

yes you can do a full repair from another xp cd
just make sure its a retailed one and not a oem
the difference is a retailed version is bought in stores like staples and walmart
an oem is purchased at repair shops
they can be usually identified by the product key color of sticker
oem can show as blue or orange
retail is more of a green

the only reason i never suggested to you
was because you have media center and im not sure if using a windows xp of any version would help..but since your options are at a minimal...contacting HP is certainly your best bet....GOOD LUCK

[allie mc]

Ok. I followed the instructions for no XP disk.

When I went to boot, I got into the Recovery Console, then hit enter where it asked to log in. Then instead of going to the C:>Windows prompt, it started booting into regular Windows mode and went the blue Windows logo screen. So I hard booted, the only way I have been able to restart, and now I can't get it to boot at all. There is a light with an f on it that lights up orange, then nothing happens. I've tried to boot with and without the disk and both times the orange light comes on and it doesn't boot.

Please tell me I didn't break it.

[dsenette]

.....somethings very wrong with that computer.....it SHOULD at least be booting through bios....no matter what you do to windows (and no matter what disks you put in the drive).....

PERSONALLY....at this point i would suggest going to the comptuer store and getting an external hard drive encloser...make sure it's for 2.5 inch laptop drives (if you're worried about getting the right thing...you could take the hard drive out of the laptop first and bring it with...but i woudln't suggest doing that)....then take the hard drive out and put it in the enclosure...this should allow you to connect the drive to another computer and back up all the important data off of the drive

backing up anything that would be a terrible loss is iimportant at this stage


another thing to try (this shouldn't effect the hard drive...but i'd still suggest backing up the data as soon as possible) would be to take the battery out of the laptop, unplug it from the wall, and leave it alone for a half hour to an hour....then (with the battery still out and unplugged from the wall) hold the power button in for a minute or two....then put the battery back in and plug back into the wall and try to boot up

[allie mc]

I unplugged the machine and took the battery out, waited and hour, pressed the power switch for 2 minutes, put the battery back and plugged it in. Same, same.

My friend said not to worry about the data - apparently nothing really imortant, so I'm not going to bother backing up her files.

So what now? Anything? I thought it was an operating system problem. Is it hard drive, processor,...? And please tell me I didn't break by trying to fix it so I can stop kicking myself.

Thanks for all your help so far.

Allie

[dsenette]

MY assessment is that you didn't break anything....software can't damage hardware...and booting to that RC disk couldn't screw with your bios or anything of that nature.....i'm not sure WHAT'S happened but...it's probably "coincidental" that it happened while you were mucking about...and was probably going to happen anyway

there's obviously something extremely wrong here

there's a possibility that there was a catosrtophic drive failure (hardware related) that's causing electrical issues here...which would explain why now you're not seeing at least the bios splash screen.....if you feel comfortable doing so you could attempt to remove the HD from the laptop (not sure on specifics for this laptop...but there's usually a couple screws then it slides right out) and try to boot without the laptop and see if you at least get the bios splash screen

[Mr Freeze]

no you did not break it...so stop kicking yourself
its your operating system not the processor im a newbie in this forum so im not got guide you through a reformat ...they seem fussy about that here so a moderator should be along and help you out there