Windows XP Not Booting. Tried many fixes already! Please Help!

[Trotter]

Another option that I have used in exactly this situation was to perform a repair installation of XP. You would have to have the proper XP installation disk (OEM Home or OEM Pro) to do it, though.

 

[carnageX]

I tried the Windows XP Recovery Console from the UBCD when I get the blue screen. I guess I will have to wait to get back home in a few days before I can get my hands on an XP cd to access the Recovery Console on it. Thank you very much for your help and I will will let you know in a few days how everything goes. Thanks again and have a great night.

P.S. I will click on the reputation stars for both you, Carnage, as well as KSOD.

Here's an ISO of just the XP recovery console. Not sure if this is what UBCD is using, or not:
Boot to Recovery Console w/o XP CD - PC Pitstop Forums

Burn the ISO to disc, and boot off of it.

 

[jkn1986]

Awesome! Thank you both very much! I'll try it tonight!

 

[carnageX]

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

 

[KSoD]

Yeah if you use UBCD to try and get to the Recovery Console, it is just trying to use the one that gets installed with Windows. Since Windows isnt booting, using the one from UBCD will not work as well. You will need an XP CD to do this properly.

 

[jkn1986]

Nice, thanks everyone!

 

[jkn1986]

Hello again all! I wanted to give you an update on my situation. I didn't burn the ISO onto a disc yet, because I was able to get my hands on an XP Home Edition cd. Question: does it matter if I use an XP Home cd to do the repair install if the version on the laptop is XP Professional, or another XP version? I was thinking it wouldn't matter or be a problem. I can't tell the appropriate version because the sticker on the bottom says Vista Business, but it has been re-installed to XP, and I can't tell since it won't boot.

My major problem is, when I put the XP cd in and tried to boot from it to do the repair install and access the recovery console, I received another BSOD. I can't believe it. The stop code this time is: 0x0000007B (0xF78DA63C, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000) Is a clean install my only option here? Can you guys help me? Is there anything else I can do? Would burning the ISO to a cd of my own be any different, or give me a better chance? Thank you all very much. Look forward to hearing from all of you and have a great day.

 

[carnageX]

Hello again all! I wanted to give you an update on my situation. I didn't burn the ISO onto a disc yet, because I was able to get my hands on an XP Home Edition cd. Question: does it matter if I use an XP Home cd to do the repair install if the version on the laptop is XP Professional, or another XP version? I was thinking it wouldn't matter or be a problem. I can't tell the appropriate version because the sticker on the bottom says Vista Business, but it has been re-installed to XP, and I can't tell since it won't boot.

My major problem is, when I put the XP cd in and tried to boot from it to do the repair install and access the recovery console, I received another BSOD. I can't believe it. The stop code this time is: 0x0000007B (0xF78DA63C, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000) Is a clean install my only option here? Can you guys help me? Is there anything else I can do? Would burning the ISO to a cd of my own be any different, or give me a better chance? Thank you all very much. Look forward to hearing from all of you and have a great day.

Did you do as KSoD and I suggested and boot into the XP Recovery Console and run a chkdsk /f /r ? You need to do that first; there's a problem with your HDD, which is why you're still getting the BSOD. There could be problems with it that the chkdsk can fix or help alleviate.

Also, yes it does matter what version you have installed versus what version you're going to do a repair install with. You need to use the same version of XP as what is installed in order to correctly do a repair install, because they have slightly different system files, and using the wrong install disc to do a repair install can cause further problems. But before you try to do a repair install, go into the Recovery Console (Press R when it asks if you want to Repair or Install Windows at the initial screen), and type in: chkdsk /f /r

 

[jkn1986]

Thanks for your response Carnage. I wanted to try to do a chkdsk from the Recovery Console, but when I put the the XP cd in, and booted from it, it did yet another BSOD. Does it matter if I'm using the wrong version of an XP cd to try to access the Recovery Console? Is there a way to check the version of XP from Bios or some other way, since I can't boot? Thanks.

 

[KSoD]

Yes it does matter. You can't use a XP Pro CD to recover a XP Home install. You will need the same XP CD that was used to install on that system. There is no way to check via the BIOS what version is installed. BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System. It is just what the name implies. Basic. It will tell you what devices are attached but no way to know what version of Windows is installed on the disk.

Since the disk you are using doesnt work, that can mean only 1 of 2 things. Either 1. It is the wrong version of Windows. Meaning you have XP Home and it is XP Pro or vice versa or 2. You have a Retail version and they have an OEM version installed.

What was the BSoD that it gave when trying to boot from the CD? Is it the same one? Are you set in the BIOS to boot from CD? If so when booting from the CD you should see a black screen with the words at the top:

Press Any Key to boot from CD and a timer consisting of periods. It starts with one and counts to 5 periods. If you do not see this screen then it is trying to boot directly from the hard drive and skipping the CD boot. Make sure the CD is above the Hard Drive in the boot options.