I have a problem with a stationer PC running XP Home on an Intel Celeron. I decided to uninstall Avast antivirus as Avast was slowing down the pc, as it frequently runs a scan and slows down the pc (using an uninstaller I downloaded from Avast and removed it in safe mode), and instead installed MS Security Essentials after returning to normal mode. It was working well until I closed it, and after an hour turning it on it started to give problems trying to enter Normal mode as it did.

When turning it on, it stucks at a black boot screen waiting to choose whether to start in Normal mode or in Safe mode (with or without network connection), plus the possibility to choose a Recovery mode.
What ever I choose, it restarts and returns back to the same boot screen asking me to choose a mode to enter.

I even changed to start booting from CD drive by entering the BIOS section, but it only lets me to reinstall or repair XP, and does not start the PC with help of the CD. I decided to choose to repair the XP, but after waiting a long time it didn't show any results, so I decided to give it up and closed the PC.

I hardly want to format and reinstall XP, as there are some files I haven't backed up. Is there any way I can force the system to start??

Thanks for any helps.

Test the RAM with Memtest: http://www.memtest.org/#downiso
Test the Hard Drive with the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility or UBCD: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.

My first job would be to boot from a Live Linux distro and copy the files that you haven't backed up onto a USB stick or other external drive.

Then attempt recovery, probably before ending up reinstalling XP anyway.

Richard

I can not enter the PC at all to perform any test.

Where can I get the Linux distro??

Quote:

Where can I get the Linux distro??

In any of the Linux Websites.

Try Ubuntu for instance:
www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

It will download an ISO file you can burn onto a disk and boot with.

Alternatively, and with a much smaller size the UBCD suggested by DrB0b will let you run all the tools mentioned above without booting into Windows.

You could always boot into the recovery console of your Windows Installation CD and run a few commands like:
chkdsk C:

How to Boot into Recovery Console
pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ss/rconsole.htm


Finally a repair Install will replace all OS files with clean fresh ones from disc which may solve most if not all issues while preserving all data and installed applications.

www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Personally the first thing I'd do is run UBCD and check the hard drive for any issues it may have. no point in trying to repair Windows if the drive is at fault.

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Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

Try booting of the XP CD, going into the recovery console and running a disk scan using chkdsk. I have lost count of the number of PCs I've fixed that simply have a bad file in need of scanning and repairing.

Can also be an issue with hardware that upchucks the boot. Just spent a couple of days working on answers that not only upchucked the XP boot but also UBCD. Would start booting then reboot. Reloading would get to 35% left then reboot, probably at the same place as the normal boot died. Has now progressed to failing on any boot.

Google for the 35% point of failure for an explanation of the hardware issues.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

Thank you for all your replies.
After several attempts trying entering XP recovery console which didn't happen, I am now running Memtest86 and later on will perform diagnostic test with UBCD. I'll get back with the results of these two tests.

I went through 4 levels of Memtest86 and it didn't detect any problems, so I started the UBCD diagnostic, and it gave several options, but I only tried the HDD tests. As the HDD is a Hitachi I could only perform one test, its surface test and it didn't show any problems.
Now I am back in the first place trying to enter the Recovery console mode with XP installation CD. It just keeps there without moving to the next level.
Any suggestion about what I could do now?

Quote:

It just keeps there without moving to the next level.

Where?

What does it say if anything?

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Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

The console requires you to type in the commands, it is not graphical, it is command line interface. You should just boot from the xp disk, and choose install windows, let it detect the old windows and it should ask if you want to attempt repair, choose yes. Also the aborted repair, where you turned it off. May have made windows unusable. If a repair install fails, better to put drive in another machine, pull data you need, and format and reinstall from scratch.

My attempts have been either to enter the Recovery console or Repair installation of XP.
After pressing "R" for a repairment of XP installation it just remains in a blue screen.
The Recovery console does not start at all, pc just restarts and brings it back to the black screen asking to choose which mode to enter.

Is it possible to perform a clean installation and preserve the personal data (pictures, personal files, bookmarks, etc) on the hard drive?

Are you hitting the first "R" it asks you for? Make sure you are doing it correctly: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/instxprepair1_4.htm

Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.

The testing for the hitachi hdd that you want is called drive fitness tools. That will test all aspects of that drive. Also are you using a windows xp disk or some oem recovery disk?

DrBob.... that is the R as shown in the link you provided I use to perform a repair install. After pressing R it goes to another page where nothing is shown and it just keeps there until I turn off and turn on the pc again. I have previously installed and reinstalled XP on other pc's but haven't seen such case.

rclarke250.... the XP installation CD is an OEM version that came with the pc. I'll go through the test you mentioned.

On the link from DrBob, you should be pressing <enter> not R. Then it will go to a screen to ask where you want to install to, choose the same location as previous install, i.e. c:\windows and then it will ask if you would like to attempt a repair on the previous installation, answer yes.

I even tried to perform a new installation by pressing Enter, but it just got stuck in the next screen without showing anything. I guess the only option I have left with is, to take the HDD out and copy those files I need and then format the hard drive.

You could attempt an inplace install.

Go through the entire setup process as if you are going to install XP from scratch. Once you reach the Partition selection screen, choose the partition that holds your non working installation. When it asks to Format the drive say no. Tell it to keep file system as is.

This should re-install Windows in the same partition and same folder but keep all files and apps intact.

See if it can get through that option.

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Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

@vacunita ... I tried to install XP from scratch and attempt an inplace install, but it doesn't happen anything. After pressing Enter it starts in a new page but there are no contents on that page, a completely empty page, waited for quite long time but it didn't show anything. I guess the easiest way that is left, is to connect the HDD with a cable to another pc and copy its content and then format the drive and reinstall XP.

Is it possible through a boot CD to only reinstall the necessary files for start up, or the common registry files, so it replaces the existing ones?

This is sounding more and more like either a hard drive or system board issue. Did you try the Linux live CD?

Quote:

After pressing "R" for a repairment of XP installation it just remains in a blue screen.
The Recovery console does not start at all, pc just restarts and brings it back to the black screen asking to choose which mode to enter.

Quote:

that is the R as shown in the link you provided I use to perform a repair install. After pressing R it goes to another page where nothing is shown and it just keeps there until I turn off and turn on the pc again.

Quote:

I even tried to perform a new installation by pressing Enter, but it just got stuck in the next screen without showing anything.

I agree with rclarke:
This sounds to me like the HDD is the culprit. It kills the Installation when it tried to read from it to asses partitions and installations currently on disk.

Give a Linux Live CD a try. See it will mount the HD for you to access. At least that way you may be able to get data off of it without needing a secondary PC.

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Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech