Won't boot all the way, just keeps rebooting

[tjacobs34]

I've got Win XP Pro and it starts to boot but never gets to the Windows screen. It just keeps rebooting in a loop. Any suggestions on a fix, I really need the files that are on there.

 

[DTracy]

1) Try booting in safe mode--press the F8 key often/many times during startup.
2) Try booting from the recovery console (located on the XP install disk).
3) Try booting from another drive (may take some BIOS adjustment) or pressing the Escape key during startup--same procedure as safe mode.
4) Put the drive into another computer and slave it.

det

 

[tjacobs34]

I tried to boot from safe mode and it just kept looping to reboot.

I need to track down the XP Install Disk.

I did get it to the BIOS screen but really didn't know what to change to try something different.

I tried to slave it on another computer and it wouldn't boot up at all (either drive). Not sure what was up with that.

I'm going home to mess with it some more.

 

[wolluf]

I tried to slave it on another computer and it wouldn't boot up at all

That could be because drive is knacked - or you just didn't set the jumpers correctly (eg, if it was set as master in its own machine and you were running as slave in the other).

If you have SP2 installed, then at the safe mode menu there's an option to stop it restarting on error. Try this - and hopefully you will at least get a blue screen with some information (eg, it may be a registry file causing the problem). Post back if you get more info from this.

Ypu really could do with the XP install CD (you can download the 6 boot floppy set from

http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=310994

if you can't find install disk. You can start recovery console from there - run chkdsk /p.