XP fatal error during boot

[HerbG]

Hello,

I was downloading the WP Pro Service Pack 1 and my laptop
crashed. Now it won't even startup in Safe mode or any
other kind of mode accessible through the safe mode
options screen.
It briefly displays "fatal error" blue screen that seems
to say something about "password..." which I can't make
out since it goes away so quickly. Then reboots itself and
crashes, reboots, crashes, etc., etc..


I have XP recovery diskS and can reinstall but don't want
to overwrite my data.

Question 1: Can I use the recovery CD disks to reinstall
XP Pro and NOT overwrite my data?

Question 2: Is there some way I can get a command prompt
and bypass all the baloney overhead to copy out my data to
floppies?

Question 3: WHY DON'T THEY GIVE YOU AN OPTION TO BOOT TO A
DOS/COMMAND PROMPT????? THIS HAS SUCKED SINCE WINDOWS
ME!!!!! MUST WE ALL MIGRATE TO LINUX!!!????

Thank you for your time,

Herb
..

[Valentin Stanev]

Hi,
1. If you have the Win XP CD you can boot from the CD and do a "Repair
instalation" which will recover the system files and won't overwrite your
data.
2. You can download from bootdisk.com (from another PC or an Internet cafe)
an executable with which you can make a boot floppy disk and boot to command
prompt. Also you can use a boot disk made with Win 98.

This are the two things you can do to access your data.

Valentin

[HerbG]

THANKS!


>-----Original Message-----
>Hi,
>1. If you have the Win XP CD you can boot from the CD and
do a "Repair
>instalation" which will recover the system files and
won't overwrite your
>data.
>2. You can download from bootdisk.com (from another PC or
an Internet cafe)
>an executable with which you can make a boot floppy disk
and boot to command
>prompt. Also you can use a boot disk made with Win 98.
>
>This are the two things you can do to access your data.
>
>Valentin
>
>
>.
>