Windows XP will not boot

[whocares00]

Hi

i've had this problem i dont know how many times so far and i honestly dont know how to fix it... i restarted my comp today and windows didnt boot up anymore.... the comp goes past the setup screen, and then just stops with a blinking cursor at the top of the screen and doesnt load up windows....

can anyone please tell me what to do, because i am desperate, i have some files i didnt have time to backup on that drive and i would like to try anything possible OTHER than to re-format my drive, which would cause me to lose those files.....

thank you very much...

 

[Osiris]

reboot and keep hitting the F8 button, this will get you to safe mode, if you can get there. If you dont see anything at all, no error message, etc. Do a windows repair which will repair your OS and it wont delete anything

 

[whocares00]

i just tried that (F8), but sadly, i cant even get to that screen....

my comp gets past the regular "press F2 to enter setup; press F12 for boot menu" and then just goes straight to a black screen with a blinking cursor at the top left of the screen instead of booting up windows like it should....

 

[Osiris]

its time for a repair then. do you have the windows cd?

 

[whocares00]

yep, i have it... i went into the recovery console and performed chkdsk with the option to repair any errors, and it did it, but it still doeesnt work... i'm thinking of doing fixmbr now.... but i'm not sure......

 

[RicoDirenzo]

Try doing what Warez has suggested. boot form your windows cd and when prompted do a windows repair....do not go into the repair console.

 

[whocares00]

i tried that

it went through the whole "copying files" in the windows repair installation thing and then it re-started my computer and it still wasnt working... so i went back, and now it said "windows already tried repairing your system, would you like to do it again?".... so i said yes, but it just did the exact same thing.... it didnt fix anything...

 

[Ste]

Do you hear any Beeps or get any POST errors? It sounds like your getting Past POST but before it get to starting the OS it dies.

Consider, trying to save data then reformating.

Could be a bad drive.

 

[whocares00]

Do you hear any Beeps or get any POST errors? It sounds like your getting Past POST but before it get to starting the OS it dies.

Consider, trying to save data then reformating.

Could be a bad drive.

it could be, but the thing is this happened before, and i went and got my HD replaced with a new one, of a newer generation too... and now it's happened again....

i was thinking, could it be a problem with my BIOS chip? because i honestly cant think of anything else... hopefully it's not that though....

 

[Rich97]

it could be many things hardware RAM, motherboard, etc. post how many beeps you get at startup and the make of BIOS chip.
it may help people to help you...