[fairview]

Woke up this morning with the computer restarting itself continuously. Is is a compaq laptop with Windows XP. The computer goes to a screen with the options of opening it in the safemode, last known config that worked, or start windows normally. Upon selecting any of these, there is a blue screen which flashes for a fraction of a second and the computer restarts. Nothing seems to work.
Please help

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Do you have a restore disk or an XP CD? Just to have a starting point, try to boot with your restore disk, dont try a repair install yet. Just see if the computer boots off the disk. If it does, this will give you some idea whether its hard ware or software related. And if you can boot off your disk, try a chkdsk from the recovery consule.

[djgotee]

Do you have a restore disk or an XP CD? Just to have a starting point, try to boot with your restore disk, dont try a repair install yet. Just see if the computer boots off the disk. If it does, this will give you some idea whether its hard ware or software related. And if you can boot off your disk, try a chkdsk from the recovery consule.

[fairview]

thanks for the reply.
it boots off the disk and i went to the recovery console. it asks 'which windows installation would you like to log into. What next?
Thanks

[raziel00]

HI,

when it asks which windows to load ? if you have many select the first one.
If no select the one that you recognize.

After that try to find the command fixmbr and execute it.

BTW, i had the same problem and thats how i did it.
If it works update windows after that i never got the problem ever again.

Good luck

[fairview]

No, when I boot the computer off the CD, I am taken to a setup screen with 3 options.
To set up windows XP now, press enter
to repair a windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R
To quit setup without installing Windows XP, press F3

I pressed R to go to the recovery console. I want to know what to do next.

Thanks

[djgotee]

Yes, you can try fixmbr, but try a chkdsk first.

[djgotee]

Ok if you are at the recovery console, write: chkdsk

the other gentelman suggested a fixmbr, and you can try this also, however, try a chkdsk first. chkdsk checks the file system and some other things on your hard drive and repairs these in some cases if there are problems.

[raziel00]

Yes djgotee is right,

after going in recovery console, execute "chkdsk" command without the quotes, then "fixmbr" without the quotes.

This should do the trick

Good luck

[fairview]

i did chkdsk and it says 39062012 KB total disk space. 24218572 KB available.
On performing fixmbr i get a warning saying
this computer appears to have a non standard or invalid master boot record . fixmbr may damage your partition tables if you proceed. this could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk to become inaccessible. if you are not having problems accessing your drive, do not continue. Are you sure you want to write a new mbr?

What should I do?

Thanks

[djgotee]

That message is sometimes pretty standard. Its warning you that it does not see a normal mbr. which is what may be the cause of your problem.

However, if you do an mbr and it does not fix your problem, you could lose access to the drive. But whats your alternative at this point? you cant get into windows anyhow, right? Just remember, its your choice and your responsibiliy.

[djgotee]

I also wanted to tell you that if you do a fixmbr and it does not work that there are ways to retrieve files from your hard drive still, even if the mbr is damaged.

[Major Payne]

Woke up this morning with the computer restarting itself continuously. Is is a compaq laptop with Windows XP. The computer goes to a screen with the options of opening it in the safemode, last known config that worked, or start windows normally. Upon selecting any of these, there is a blue screen which flashes for a fraction of a second and the computer restarts. Nothing seems to work.
Please help

I take it you did read Admin's instructions with screen shots here :

Repair Windows XP

May or may not help you, but the info is worth reading.

Ron

[fairview]

thanks, it seems to have worked. is there anything i can do to prevent it from happening in the future?
Thanks

[djgotee]

what worked? fixmbr or what major paine suggested?

[fairview]

fixmbr worked.
thanks