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#1
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XP Home Edition won't boot to desktop
HELP! Over 2.5 weeks ago, my computer stopped booting to the desktop. No
icons, nothing shows...but 3 screens. One screen is the Microsoft XP logo, one is "shut off mode in 5 seconds" and there is another one with white writing....somethiing File. When I ca lled this Microsoft help place, they told me to turn my computer off and keep pressing F8 over and over. We tried to reboot with the safe mode, and all this other options on that list. Nothing. They said it sounds like my version of XP is corrupted. Finally, they said that I need to get the XP Home Edition disc and re-install it. Well, my computer is 6 years old abd Sony Vaio doesn't give you the disc when you buy it. They said that I would be able to reinstall XP Home Edition WITHOUT losing any of my data. So, I had to buy the XP Home Edition. I bought it from an E-Bay seller. He sent the Pro edition, so I had to return it because it said I would lose my data if I installed it. I was assured by these Microsoft techs if I bought the same edition (XP Home Edition) I would not lose my data. It wouldn't try to "reformat" the drive. Well, this afternoon I just go the XP Home Edition in the mail, put it in, and it says that C drive either has something incompatible with XP, hasn't been formatted, etc. etc. It won't let me install on D drive. But, it says if installed it will need to format the drive and CAUTION ALL data will be lost.!!! Is there any way to re-install without it losing my data? I think most of my important data is on D but I know some is still on C too. I'm about to self-combust :-) Any help would be greatly appreciated. |
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#2
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XP Home Edition won't boot to desktop
Try a Repair Install. Go here and read the instructions carefully.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm "'Peachest2" wrote in message ... HELP! Over 2.5 weeks ago, my computer stopped booting to the desktop. No icons, nothing shows...but 3 screens. One screen is the Microsoft XP logo, one is "shut off mode in 5 seconds" and there is another one with white writing....somethiing File. When I ca lled this Microsoft help place, they told me to turn my computer off and keep pressing F8 over and over. We tried to reboot with the safe mode, and all this other options on that list. Nothing. They said it sounds like my version of XP is corrupted. Finally, they said that I need to get the XP Home Edition disc and re-install it. Well, my computer is 6 years old abd Sony Vaio doesn't give you the disc when you buy it. They said that I would be able to reinstall XP Home Edition WITHOUT losing any of my data. So, I had to buy the XP Home Edition. I bought it from an E-Bay seller. He sent the Pro edition, so I had to return it because it said I would lose my data if I installed it. I was assured by these Microsoft techs if I bought the same edition (XP Home Edition) I would not lose my data. It wouldn't try to "reformat" the drive. Well, this afternoon I just go the XP Home Edition in the mail, put it in, and it says that C drive either has something incompatible with XP, hasn't been formatted, etc. etc. It won't let me install on D drive. But, it says if installed it will need to format the drive and CAUTION ALL data will be lost.!!! Is there any way to re-install without it losing my data? I think most of my important data is on D but I know some is still on C too. I'm about to self-combust :-) Any help would be greatly appreciated. |
#3
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XP Home Edition won't boot to desktop
Thanks so much...I will check it out!!
"Rich Barry" wrote: Try a Repair Install. Go here and read the instructions carefully. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm "'Peachest2" wrote in message ... HELP! Over 2.5 weeks ago, my computer stopped booting to the desktop. No icons, nothing shows...but 3 screens. One screen is the Microsoft XP logo, one is "shut off mode in 5 seconds" and there is another one with white writing....somethiing File. When I ca lled this Microsoft help place, they told me to turn my computer off and keep pressing F8 over and over. We tried to reboot with the safe mode, and all this other options on that list. Nothing. They said it sounds like my version of XP is corrupted. Finally, they said that I need to get the XP Home Edition disc and re-install it. Well, my computer is 6 years old abd Sony Vaio doesn't give you the disc when you buy it. They said that I would be able to reinstall XP Home Edition WITHOUT losing any of my data. So, I had to buy the XP Home Edition. I bought it from an E-Bay seller. He sent the Pro edition, so I had to return it because it said I would lose my data if I installed it. I was assured by these Microsoft techs if I bought the same edition (XP Home Edition) I would not lose my data. It wouldn't try to "reformat" the drive. Well, this afternoon I just go the XP Home Edition in the mail, put it in, and it says that C drive either has something incompatible with XP, hasn't been formatted, etc. etc. It won't let me install on D drive. But, it says if installed it will need to format the drive and CAUTION ALL data will be lost.!!! Is there any way to re-install without it losing my data? I think most of my important data is on D but I know some is still on C too. I'm about to self-combust :-) Any help would be greatly appreciated. |
#4
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XP Home Edition won't boot to desktop
Your system will need to be reloaded with a complete format in order for
Windows to run properly. What is needed is to back up your current data to an external hard drive. I can send you a boot cd that will allow us to use a Linux program to retrieve your data and back it up to an external device. Then you can reload your OS and programs and we can restore the data. I can assist you with this from remote with the CD I can send you. If you would like to discuss this option please feel free to call me. Hope this helps, Andy Andy Smith Master PC Technician Jandy Computer Services 17 Lafayette St. Lewiston, ME 04240 Phone 207-784-7276 Cell 207-240-4546 http://www.jandy.net "'Peachest2" wrote in message ... HELP! Over 2.5 weeks ago, my computer stopped booting to the desktop. No icons, nothing shows...but 3 screens. One screen is the Microsoft XP logo, one is "shut off mode in 5 seconds" and there is another one with white writing....somethiing File. When I ca lled this Microsoft help place, they told me to turn my computer off and keep pressing F8 over and over. We tried to reboot with the safe mode, and all this other options on that list. Nothing. They said it sounds like my version of XP is corrupted. Finally, they said that I need to get the XP Home Edition disc and re-install it. Well, my computer is 6 years old abd Sony Vaio doesn't give you the disc when you buy it. They said that I would be able to reinstall XP Home Edition WITHOUT losing any of my data. So, I had to buy the XP Home Edition. I bought it from an E-Bay seller. He sent the Pro edition, so I had to return it because it said I would lose my data if I installed it. I was assured by these Microsoft techs if I bought the same edition (XP Home Edition) I would not lose my data. It wouldn't try to "reformat" the drive. Well, this afternoon I just go the XP Home Edition in the mail, put it in, and it says that C drive either has something incompatible with XP, hasn't been formatted, etc. etc. It won't let me install on D drive. But, it says if installed it will need to format the drive and CAUTION ALL data will be lost.!!! Is there any way to re-install without it losing my data? I think most of my important data is on D but I know some is still on C too. I'm about to self-combust :-) Any help would be greatly appreciated. |
#5
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XP Home Edition won't boot to desktop
"Jandy Computer Services" wrote:
Andy Smith Master PC Technician What's a "Master PC Technician" Google has a problem with it. |
#6
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XP Home Edition won't boot to desktop
Mike Torello wrote:
"Jandy Computer Services" wrote: Andy Smith Master PC Technician What's a "Master PC Technician" Google has a problem with it. I wonder if it's anything like a "Master Baiter"? |
#7
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XP Home Edition won't boot to desktop
"'Peachest2" wrote in message
... HELP! Over 2.5 weeks ago, my computer stopped booting to the desktop. No icons, nothing shows...but 3 screens. One screen is the Microsoft XP logo, one is "shut off mode in 5 seconds" and there is another one with white writing....somethiing File. When I ca lled this Microsoft help place, they told me to turn my computer off and keep pressing F8 over and over. We tried to reboot with the safe mode, and all this other options on that list. Nothing. They said it sounds like my version of XP is corrupted. Finally, they said that I need to get the XP Home Edition disc and re-install it. Well, my computer is 6 years old abd Sony Vaio doesn't give you the disc when you buy it. They said that I would be able to reinstall XP Home Edition WITHOUT losing any of my data. So, I had to buy the XP Home Edition. I bought it from an E-Bay seller. He sent the Pro edition, so I had to return it because it said I would lose my data if I installed it. I was assured by these Microsoft techs if I bought the same edition (XP Home Edition) I would not lose my data. It wouldn't try to "reformat" the drive. Well, this afternoon I just go the XP Home Edition in the mail, put it in, and it says that C drive either has something incompatible with XP, hasn't been formatted, etc. etc. It won't let me install on D drive. But, it says if installed it will need to format the drive and CAUTION ALL data will be lost.!!! Is there any way to re-install without it losing my data? I think most of my important data is on D but I know some is still on C too. I'm about to self-combust :-) Any help would be greatly appreciated. You probably should get some in-person help with this. The place to start, since you value your data, is to find someone with another XP system that has plenty of drive space, attach your drive to their system, and copy your files off. If you can't do that, then take another approach: go buy a new hard disk, where I am 250 gig disks are about $60, remove your old disk and set it aside, put the new one in, and install to that. Only after the install is complete will you attach the old hard disk and copy your files. This is probably the fastest and most reliable approach; your old drive at 6 years old is heading towards end-of-life anyway. Note that you will probably have to have another PC with internet access handy so that you can download the drivers you will need to make the system work after the basic XP install. Get these from the Sony Vaio site. Your Vaio may not come with disks, and in that case it *will* have come with a recovery partition. Power down, power back up and carefully watch the screen for what key to press to enter the recovery process. I would NOT suggest that you attempt this before backing up the data. If you replace the drive, you will lose this partition, BUT, if you clone the existing disk to a new disk, then set the old disk aside, install the new disk, you can use the recovery partition on the new, cloned copy. Again, at the end, you will attach the old drive and copy your data back. You cannot do a repair install on an OEM install with a retail disk. Where you are now, is in a place where there is significant risk to your data. You should make sure that your data exists somewhere other than on that hard disk before going any further with attempting to repair the XP install. HTH -pk |
#8
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XP Home Edition won't boot to desktop
well, if the o.s. was
functional previously, then it is doubtful it needs to be reinstalled. -------------- also, you can probably run some commands at the disk prompt like: chkdsk /p fixboot and hopefully, the issue you have won't be a corrupted registry. but a corrupted registry is also fixable. to get to the disk prompt and bypass the windows o.s., boot up with a winxp cd and select "repair". this will launch the recovery console and provide you with a disk prompt where you can initiate commands. also, there is a new program / utility provided by the alvira antivirus makers. I haven't tried it or tested it, but may be worth a try: http://www.free-av.com/en/tools/12/a...ue_system.html -- db·´¯`·...¸)))º DatabaseBen, Retired Professional - Systems Analyst - Database Developer - Accountancy - Veteran of the Armed Forces - @hotmail.com "share the nirvana" - dbZen ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "'Peachest2" wrote in message ... HELP! Over 2.5 weeks ago, my computer stopped booting to the desktop. No icons, nothing shows...but 3 screens. One screen is the Microsoft XP logo, one is "shut off mode in 5 seconds" and there is another one with white writing....somethiing File. When I ca lled this Microsoft help place, they told me to turn my computer off and keep pressing F8 over and over. We tried to reboot with the safe mode, and all this other options on that list. Nothing. They said it sounds like my version of XP is corrupted. Finally, they said that I need to get the XP Home Edition disc and re-install it. Well, my computer is 6 years old abd Sony Vaio doesn't give you the disc when you buy it. They said that I would be able to reinstall XP Home Edition WITHOUT losing any of my data. So, I had to buy the XP Home Edition. I bought it from an E-Bay seller. He sent the Pro edition, so I had to return it because it said I would lose my data if I installed it. I was assured by these Microsoft techs if I bought the same edition (XP Home Edition) I would not lose my data. It wouldn't try to "reformat" the drive. Well, this afternoon I just go the XP Home Edition in the mail, put it in, and it says that C drive either has something incompatible with XP, hasn't been formatted, etc. etc. It won't let me install on D drive. But, it says if installed it will need to format the drive and CAUTION ALL data will be lost.!!! Is there any way to re-install without it losing my data? I think most of my important data is on D but I know some is still on C too. I'm about to self-combust :-) Any help would be greatly appreciated. |
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