Can't get XP to start

Hey Judy,

This is a fairly complex problem, so let's start with the
basics and we're going to assume there is valuable data on
the hard drive. Loosing power is bad for the hard drive,
but the surge when it comes back on can be fatal.
Hopefully you had a proper surge protector (not those $12
ones) and the hard drive is not destroyed; but just has
some bad sectors on it. If none of the F8 options at boot
up works, you can try using the RECOVERY CONSOLE. The
recovery console is initiated by inserting your XP Cd and
rebooting at the computer, and choosing recover from the
setup program. This will prompt you for the admin password
and then drop you into a text based environment to make
changes.. (advanced users)

If this doesn't work, there are some good software options
out there such as Winternal's, but those are out of the
price range unless your a tech shop ($1,000). So, try
taking the hard drive out of the machine and putting it in
another XP machine and then running chkdsk to determine
whether the HD is bad. If it's not bad, you can recover
your data off of it on this second PC. Even if you had
NTFS permissions, the admin for the other PC can take
ownership of all the files and copy them. If the files
were encrypted however, you won't be able to recover them.

After that you would need to format the hard drive and
reinstall everything. (Assuming the hard drive isn't
permanently damaged.)

This is just one way to go about it, based upon the limited
info available to me. If these suggestions are beyond your
abilities I would suggest you find a CompTIA A+ certified
shop in your area to perform these recovery functions for you.

To prevent this in the future, consider getting a
Uniterruptable Power Supply (UPS). Low end models start at
around $120. I live in the Tampa area, so with the storms
we get I consider mine a vital component of my system.

If I can help out more let me know.

-James
-----Original Message-----
We were defragmenting the other night and the power went
out. Not sure how far it had gotten with the
degragmenting when this happened. Ever since we can not
get XP to start. It starts, the XP screen comes up and
then it shuts down. No matter what mode we try we get
the same results. What do we do?
.