PC won't bootup to windows

[badvibe]

I posted a thread about this before but can't find it now. Issue is this. I have a ASUS P5Q SE/R MOBO, Intel P4 3.2 ghz, westgate 320 GB HD SATA drive. Running XP PRo. System was working fine for a while. Now when system gets to Windows boot screen, PC automatically reboots itself and continues to do this until power is turned off. I tried booting in all modes with same result. Also tried booting with just HD connected, got same result. It was suggested that I should try a Windows repair with disc. When I hit f3 to bring up the recovery console, it said that it could not detect the hard drive and to check power to HD etc.. I have no idea what to do next. Please chime in if u have a suggestion. Thanks.

 

[Lexluethar]

Do not press F3 when doing a repair. When you press F3 it takes you to the command prompt. You actually want to continue in that same screen. Then it will bring you to a screen that will show what partitions / installations you have. Then you highlight the OS (obviously an XP one) and press R on it.

This is probably the best tutorial IMO:
How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install

 

[badvibe]

I didn't press f3. I pressed R to go to repair console and discribed in the article u sent. Thats the 1 I've been using. Thanks for the reply.

I goofed. When I was doing the repair I pressed R to bring up the repair console. That was when I got the message that the HD could not be found. I read the tutorial more closely. LOL and tried to do another repair. Now PC will not bring up the content on the Windows CD.

 

[Ab0mbs]

You should back up your data if you can and try a system restore. although i dont know if you can do this from the command prompt when you hit f3. If you can get your hands on a vista disk you can try it from there.