HELP!!! NEED HELP WITH WINDOWS XP

[ragmop69]

Hey. Can somebody please help me?

I was forced to use the recovery disk that came with my HP computer (yes, I got this a few years back) because my computer wasn't loading everything on the desktop and would not allow me to do anything upon opening to the desktop after the user login screen.

I ran the recovery disk, choosing to recover without reformatting. The recovery disks are for Windows ME. I have the Windows XP Pro disk, but was going to recover to ME and then run the XP Pro disk after everything got working again. However, now my computer will not load to Windows. It starts up, does the "WINDOWS XP" scanning screen, goes into the HP blue load page (I guess because it's an HP mo/bo), and then goes into the Safe mode screen. I have selected every option (start in safe mode, start in safe mode on network, start in normal mode), but the computer then restarts and begins the cycle again.

I have also tried placing the XP disk in the CD-ROM and then starting the computer. This would normally allow you to install Windows, but it goes into the "Safe mode" screen cycle again, like there is no Windows disk in the drive. This eliminates the possibility of me doing a "dirty install".

Does anybody know what can be done? I know that I have the option of reformatting, but I have documents on the hard drive that I cannot afford to lose (some college papers, some business invoices, etc). Is there any way possible to get my computer running again without sacrificing those documents or having to reformat the entire hard drive?

Any, ANY help that you can provide would be appreciated.

Thanks,
RAGMOP69

 

[synthetic666]

best idea: is to reformat if you do the recovey and it works upgrading from me to xp is not so easy i had an idetical issue with 2k pro i finished recovery went to upgrade and it went claupoo so i recomend do the upgrade it will ask for an old os insert ur old windows but reformat the hd first.

 

[bcastner]

First, you need to go into BIOS setup when the machine is first turned on.

Hit the F1 key early and often as soon as power is supplied to enter BIOS setup. Then set the boot device order so that your CD Rom drive is the first boot device, your floppy drive the second boot device, and your hard disk the third boot device.

What you do now depends on whether your filestore is FAT32 or NTFS:

. If FAT32, make a Win98SE boot diskette, and boot from the floppy.

http://www.bootdisk.com/

Copy the information you need from the drive.

. If NTFS, download and burn a Knoppix or Ultimate Boot CD, boot from it, and copy the files you need from the drive.

. Knoppix:

http://www.knoppix.net/get.php

. Ultimate Boot CD:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Now do whatever Recovery method you like, as long as it removes completely your faulty installation of both the HP Recovery partition and the Windows partition.