Damn Windows - Need troubleshooting

[Tetragrammaton]

Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, my gaming computer has decided to be stubborn.

Upon startup, I get through POST and the normal booting up stuff. Windows does its loading screen thingie fine. Then the monitor goes black and my mouse cursor appears. The mouse responds, but the startup does not finish. Or maybe it does; it's hard to tell.

I tried booting in Safe Mode. The "safe mode" labels in the corners appear, and the mouse still responds, but the rest is still black.

I've checked the Microsoft KB, but I don't have an error message to work with, so I may have missed something.

Please help!

 

[sandorski]

Doesn't sound good. BTW, which version of Windows?

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Sorry, it's XP Pro.

Any ideas?

 

[sandorski]

I'd boot off the Windows CD and do a Repair install.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

I tried using a floppy boot disk, but this changed nothing.

Any ideas here? I'd like to recover my files.

 

[ShellGuy]

you could try and use an external drive case and plug ur hdd up to another system via usb and pull ur files that way..


Will G>

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Tetragrammaton
I tried using a floppy boot disk, but this changed nothing.

Any ideas here? I'd like to recover my files.

Boot off the CD, setup will Autorun, choose to do a Repair install.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Truth be told, I'm having trouble finding the CD...

 

[ShellGuy]

I beleive you could use a friends if needbe for a repair...


Will G.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

I'd need the CD key, though.

 

[OOBradm]

if you just need your files but are willing to reformat, try installing windows on that drive again and just overwrite your old windows install, all of your files will be tehre you'll just lose your
registry but if you gonna reformat anyways its not a big deal. thats what i always do.

 

[zephyrprime]

Before you do anything, run a hard disk diagnostic. After that, try running safe mode with command line and run system restore from the command line. You can also try running system restore from the CD. If that doesn't work, then all you have left is reinstallation.

 

[fire400]

Originally posted by: OOBradm
if you just need your files but are willing to reformat, try installing windows on that drive again and just overwrite your old windows install, all of your files will be tehre you'll just lose your
registry but if you gonna reformat anyways its not a big deal. thats what i always do.

this is true, however, DO NOT overwrite the windows directory as your my documents folder and other precious files may be lost in the process, when prompted to over the Windows folder or to specify a different directory in which the Windows XP installation files will be stored, rename the directory to something else other than C:/windows, you will be given dual boots. recover what you need and then do according to your desires

you can take the drive out and boot it as a slave in another computer in which you will be able to access the files without having to boot from that particular drive as an OS and not have to deal with the same problems as when you booted from the drive alone on your gaming rig. you can then extract the files you want from the drive and check certain parameters for any OS errors on the slave drive

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Luckily, the files I'm dying to get at are not in my Documents&Settings folder. Those I backed up earlier (most of them), and I have to email each one to myself so that I can print them on a different machine. So that's not a concern.

I'll try a Repair Install from the Windows CD as soon as I find the CD.