[skrinkles]

my husband , he was trying to restore to an earlier date on his comp , when he did that he couldnt find the program he was looking for, so he tried a system restore 3-4 more times, the next time he turned on his comp it would start up it would go to the blue start up screen that says windows xp and stays there , he's tried to get in through safe mode and it still did nothing he tried every option available in safe mode and it wont go past still he doesnt have the xp disk , so what can he do and what went wrong in order for this to happen?

and how does he fix it?

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Do you have a XP Installation CD or manufacturer's recovery disc?

If you have the install CD then I would try a Repair Install, see if that fixes it. A Repair install doesn't mess with your data and most installed programs will still work though some will have to be reinstalled, anti-virus for sure.

If not backup your data then do a Clean Install:
Clean Install- WhatTheTech
Clean Install - Michael Stevens Tech

or use the manufacturer's recovery disc to restore the computer to it's factory new state. This is painful I know but sometimes it can't be helped and is the only viable solution.

[Ztruker]

Do you have a XP Installation CD or manufacturer's recovery disc?

If you have the install CD then I would try a Repair Install, see if that fixes it. A Repair install doesn't mess with your data and most installed programs will still work though some will have to be reinstalled, anti-virus for sure.

If not backup your data then do a Clean Install:
Clean Install- WhatTheTech
Clean Install - Michael Stevens Tech

or use the manufacturer's recovery disc to restore the computer to it's factory new state. This is painful I know but sometimes it can't be helped and is the only viable solution.

[skrinkles]

what cd am i suppost to get i don't have any xp disc? in order for it to get fixed or is there no difference? do i just need a xp installion disc?

[Ztruker]

What is the make and model number of the computer? You may be able to order the recovery CD from the manufacturer. If not they should be available from RestoreDisks.com or recovery-disks.com. I've order from both with no problems.

You could also borrow a XP install CD but it must be the right version, otherwise you will not be able to activate it and after 30 days it will no longer be useable.

You could try running chkdsk to see if there is a corrupted file system. You are going to have to get into BIOS Setup on your computer to set the CD/DVD drive as the first bootable device, so you can then boot your XP CD, unless it provides the ability to press a Fn key at boot time to bring up the boot selection menu. If it does, use that.

How you do this varies with each manufacturer. Normally you press F1, F2, F10 or Del when you see the manufacturers logo. Often there is a clue somewhere on the screen when you boot normally telling you what key to press. Some computers (most newer ones) have a key you can press (often F12) to bring up the Boot Menu from where you can select the CD/DVD drive to boot from.

If you don't have an XP CD, download and run ARCDC by Artellos. It will download the required files from the Microsoft Web site and create a .iso file. It will also offer to burn the iso image to a CD for you. If you don't do it then, there is a good freeware burner called ImgBurn which will do it at a later time. If you're unsure how to do this, you can follow the tutorial here: How to Burn an ISO File. This can be done from any computer.

Boot the CD and at the first opportunity, enter R to start the Recovery Console.

Next, choose which XP installation you want to login to. Normally this will be 1.
Lastly you will be asked for the Administrator password. Just press the Enter key as the Administrator does not have a password (unless you gave it one, then you would enter it).

From the command prompt, enter: chkdsk /r
Allow it to complete undisturbed. It can take an hour or more depending on the size of the hard drive.

Remove the CD, type exit and the computer will reboot. Hopefully that will have fixed the problem (corrupted file system).

[skrinkles]

we got a xp cd and had to change bios cuz the cd wouldnt boot up so we had to change it to cd first ,then installed it doing repair , and followed the directions on screen it gets to the regional and languange options we hit next then it says to put in product key which we do , then installs the stuff at the side but then restarts and it goes to windows xp screen that is black with the blue loading bar then it loads , and then sreen turns black like its on then the monitor clicks off then turns back on still black then the mouse icon appears on the black screen , then hour glass pops up with th emose icon on the black screen , then goes to the windows start up screen right before windows desk top it stays frozen and doesnt move, so what do we do next and what could be causing this? could you give us a detailed responce , on what to do the comp is a dell dimension 4300 andwe are using xp home edition

[Ztruker]

Since a Repair install won't complete, do a Clean Install, see if that works. If not then you have hardware problems, most likely hard drive or memory.