[S.J]

Hello,

Im stuck, my computer will not boot windows at all. When i try to boot normaly, it gets to where i put my password in, then just restarts before i get a chance to do anything, if i leave it on like this, it just constantly loops by getting to the password screen and restarting.

I tried starting up in Safe Mode, but it gets to a black screen with "safe mode" written in the 4 corners, but then restarts again.

I tried "restoring to computer's last succesfull boot" (not the exact term but it was along those lines) but that didn't help.

i've looked all over the internet for solutions, but only a couple related to this, but their wasn't a reply.

Searching over the net, i found things regarding "recovery console commands", but me bieng not very computer skilled, coward away at the site of typing commands that i have no idea what they do.

I have run my XP set up disk and done the repair, but the problem still persists.

Heres where you all hit reply an call me an idiot, i don't have any anti virus programs, so i might of picked up a virus. yes i know, im stupid, i have got 1 but its still in the box, an as you can understand, it hasn't protected my computer very well, on a plus side, the box hasn't got any viruses!

I realy want to resolve this without re-formatting as i have about a years worth of my own music saved on this computer, and more worrying, me and my girlfriend have a half made track for a big compotition that has to be sent off in 2 weeks, so even if theirs a way of getting into the computer to save my music before formatting?

please please please help me

thanks alot

Steve

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Hi S.J.! Welcome to G2G!

Yes, having no A/V program installed is a bad thing and you most likely do have a virus, but lets check a few other things first before sending you off to the Malware Forum.

Since you've already stated that you've done a repair installation of Windows, that means you have an XP disk, which is a good thing. What I want you to do is to boot from the CD again, but at the first screen hit R to enter the Recovery Console. Then when asks which installation of Windows you want to log into, hit 1 since this is most likely the only version of XP you have on your machine. For the Administrator password, just hit Enter since it is most likely blank. Once you are at the C:\WINDOWS prompt, I want you to type chkdsk /p /r. This will do a very thorough check of your hard drive and Windows installation files and attempt to fix anything that is corrupted/damaged. This will take awhile so be patient. Once it is done, type Exit, take out your XP cd from the CD-ROM drive, and your computer will reboot itself.

Fenor

[Fenor]

Hi S.J.! Welcome to G2G!

Yes, having no A/V program installed is a bad thing and you most likely do have a virus, but lets check a few other things first before sending you off to the Malware Forum.

Since you've already stated that you've done a repair installation of Windows, that means you have an XP disk, which is a good thing. What I want you to do is to boot from the CD again, but at the first screen hit R to enter the Recovery Console. Then when asks which installation of Windows you want to log into, hit 1 since this is most likely the only version of XP you have on your machine. For the Administrator password, just hit Enter since it is most likely blank. Once you are at the C:\WINDOWS prompt, I want you to type chkdsk /p /r. This will do a very thorough check of your hard drive and Windows installation files and attempt to fix anything that is corrupted/damaged. This will take awhile so be patient. Once it is done, type Exit, take out your XP cd from the CD-ROM drive, and your computer will reboot itself.

Fenor

[S.J]

Hi Fenor!, thanks for the welcome and fast reply.

I'll do that right now (the computers right behind me)

[S.J]

64% .. about another week to go i recon

[S.J]

Same problem, just restarts at the log in screen

[Fenor]

Take the hard drive out of the computer that doesn't boot up, and connect it as a Master on the secondary IDE channel of the working computer you are now on. When that computer boots up, it will check the drive for errors. Once you are at the desktop of the working computer, run a virus scan on that drive as well. Then reconnect it to the other computer and boot it up and see what happens.

Fenor

[S.J]

i'll nip round my mates round the corner with it, i dont want to risk infecting this computer cause its on a network of machines from a big server that costs more than my car , and is worth more than my life haha

so just to get it straight, i remove my hard drive, an just put it into another computer where the second hard drive connectors are? an start it up .. will it already be on "master" or will i have to move that tab on the back?

[Fenor]

You will notice on the machine you connect it to that there are two IDE Cables (white Ribbons) One will connect from the motherboard to the hard drive that windows on that machine is installed on. The other will connect from the motherboard to most likely a CD/DVD Drive and/or a secondary hard drive. Disconnect everything from this IDE cable so that it only is connected to the motherboard. Then connect your hard drive from your non-working computer to that IDE cable. Then boot up the machine.

Fenor

[S.J]

right i disconnected the hard drive that was in it an plugged mine into the same ones, an disconnected the white lead that went into the disk drive (but i took it off from the motherboard if that will make any diffrence??)

switched it on .. and all it did was ask me what operating system i would like to start ... 2 choices .. their was "n" or "windows xp" .. not sure what the "n" is .. i might have put that their somehow when i was tryin to ffix it .. but it wont load the hard drive it just freezes the computer ..

[Fenor]

You're supposed to boot up the Windows Installation of the working computer, not the broken Windows installation. You have to have set it up wrong because it shouldn't even ask to try to boot that installation.

Fenor

[S.J]

i wish i wasn't so good with computers!

ok i played about with the wires .. an put my hard drive to slave .. booted it up .. it didnt scan it tho .. but when i opened it up in "my computer" .. it imediatly found a trojan .. but it said it couldn't be cleaned so it quarentined it.
so now i've right clicked on D: which is what its called .. an im scanning the drive for errors myself

its got to "phase 4" so far .. goin realy slow .. not sure how long this takes.
good thing is tho i can see all my files .. i'll see what this scan says an post it up

[Fenor]

While you have the drive hooked up and is accessible on your other computer, I would transfer the files that you want saved.

Once you hook it back into the other computer and boot it up, if it still doesn't work, then your best bet is to just format the computer and start from scratch.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY BACKED UP EVERYTHING THAT YOU WANTED TO SAVE, NO GOING BACK

Fenor