Notebook boot loop.

Hello everyone. We have a problem with my wife's notebook. It is an Acer Aspire 5100, with AMD processor and Ati graphics, and , I believe a 100 gig HDD.
This morning, my wife allowed the computer to update, and I think it tried to install service pack 3. There may not have been enough room on the HDD. Now it tries to boot and goes into a loop. The XP logo comes up for a few seconds, and then, a BSOD flashes (can't read it) and it starts all over. It will not boot into safe mode, the same thing happening. I would rather not have to use recovery if possible. At he moment, we can't find the recovery disk, so my only option would be to restore to factory default. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

Greetings, BillD...

I'm assuming that because you don't want to restore to factory defaults, there must be some data on the machine that you wish to save - if this is the case, you might consider downloading and burning a Linux disk (I use Mint), which will allow you to boot the machine and salvage your files...then, when you do find the recovery disk, you should be able to reinstall Windows...

 

Thanks for the reply and the suggestion. I can restore without the recovery disk, but it will wipe everything. I'm not sure if there is anything really important on the drive.

 

These boot loops can be tough nuts to crack, especially when failed update installations are involved - since Safe Mode isn't an option, I'd be inclined to bite the bullet and start from scratch...

Good luck!

 

I'm down loading Mint now, and will try that. Thanks for your prompt response and advice. Cheers.