Can't stop emachines from entering recovery console

My daughter (6yrs) apparently has been turning off her computer by holding down "the on button". I discovered this when she was complaining of it running slow and I told her to turn it off and wait a while. She leaves it on for days so I thought it was out of RAM. So she reached up and just turned it off!

So she's been having problems, running slow, sometimes it gets stuck in a boot loop, sometimes freezes and we have no choice but to turn it off with the button or unplug it. Finally I got around to "repair install"ing Windows XP this morning.... but I somehow ended up in "recovery console" and can't escape. It gives me two options:

1. "Full system restore (destructive): and deal with the whining that all her game saves are gone
2. "Full system restore (with backup): and deal with the whining that I am unable to reinstall all her apps because she destroyed the discs a long time ago.

It has a "next" or "cancel" option. I hit "cancel" and it reboots and automatically returns to this screen again. Over and over. I set it to boot from CD (windows XP CD that came with the puter): same screen. I set it to boot from HDD: same screen. I remove the CD and boot from CD so it will take itself to HDD: SAME SCREEN! I've been avoiding the "r" button like the plaugue but it keeps taking me to "recovery console" and won't boot normally

Plz help! Thanx, you guys are awesome!
p.s. sorry if this is in the wrong place, but I couldn't figure out where to post it....

 

When you turn the PC on, immediately start tapping the "F8" key. Based on my experience with eMachines, this should take you into the "Safe Mode" boot screen.

If this works, use the arrow keys to choose "Safe Mode With Networking" and press enter. This will load Windows with a minimal number of drivers and a low res. (640x480) display.

If you can get into Safe Mode, go to the majorgeeks' download section and download/run Advanced System Care 4. Run the "deep" scan option. This will often fix glitches in Windows.

Although not a guaranteed fix, it's worth a try.

Hope this helps.

 

You can try also try last known good, but posible some of her later settings may not be saved
Otherwise,With the cd in the drive
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490890.aspx
If you press R and get into command prompt, I would type in chkdsk/C:/p/r
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb491051.aspx
Assuming C: is the partition that your current XP is on
chkdsk/c:/p/r
When finished, at the prompt, type #
EXIT
AND PRESS enter
Leave the cd in the drive but do not press any buttons, so that it skips the cd, and see if it boots back into windows
If this does not work, come back, and someone else may be able to help more.
With the constant start button shutdown, the hard drive may have got a bit corrupyed, and chkdsk commands can help.

 

Hey thanks guys for your replies, they are much appreciated

At boot it never gives me any options like "last good" or anything. I can access the BIOS and a "boot menu" but the "boot menu" only has choices of what I'd like to boot from, "hdd" "cd" or "lan" or something like that. No matter what I choose, it boots into recovery console. I tried to find an option in the BIOS menus to boot into safe mode (couldn't find it), even tried pressing f8, but it boots into recovery console regardless.

Trying F12

plodr! Thank you! )
I pressed F12 and it showed me a strange screen with GUID stuff and lotsa numbers and then it gave me the option of pressing "r" where it would boot into recovery console on the recovery partition, or from CD "if no recovery partition is found"! So it kept finding the recovery partition and defaulting to that! It also (FINALLY!) gave the option of hitting "q" to boot from OS on HDD <3 I hit that and it gave me the option of booting into safemode with networking.....

I'm starting on gman863's suggestion, and then I'll try baklogic's if I have to..... Thank you so much guys! Ya'll make an excellent team

 

It wouldn't boot into safe mode with networking, but it did boot into safe mode with command prompt.

I logged on as admin. and tried chkdsk/c:/p/r and it wouldn't recognize the command "c:" and then I removed the ":" and it wouldn't recognize "p". So I just typed in chkdsk/c and it's performing a disk check....

It says the file system is NFTS and that f parameter is not specified.
It siad c is specified and it performed the scan "read-only"
It found 4 file record segments that were unreadable:
82004
82005
82006
82007

It said "errors found" and that it couldn't continue in read-only mode.

I was left with a command prompt

I decided to put the system disk in the CD drive and try chkdsk/r and it said it couldn't run a scan cause something was in use and if I'd like to run the scan next time windows starts and I said yes and restarted windows.

Ever since then I haven't been able to boot into safe mode anything I select the start mode and it loads a bunch of drivers, and then restarts.

I've tried safe mode with command prompt again, and right now it's hung on the "drivers" screen.....

 

Hi Sioko,

That should have been 'ChkDsk C: /P /R /F'. Note that the spaces must be there. The 'F' is for 'FIX' to tell it to (try to) Fix any errors it finds.

Good Luck, Jim

 

Right. Also, if you have the drive you wish to use chkdsk with selected at the command prompt (example: C:\> is displayed), you do not need to specify the drive letter.

http://ss64.com/nt/chkdsk.html