Unable to boot past windows screen

Hi, seems like I have been having computer troubles lately. When I go to boot my computer, it asks me the option to run Windows XP Home edition or Windows recovery. I then choose Windows XP home edition. Then the computer tells me that it did not start correctly and gives me the option to start in safe mode or regularly. I have chosen every option and the same thing occurs repeatedly. The computer makes it up to the windows screen, the one with the scrolling blue bar at the bottom. After the blue bar runs across once, it freezes. Then the screen abruptly flashes to a blue screen. After that, the computer reboots and starts the boot cycle over again.

If I try to chose a boot device, like one of my three hard drives, it tells me the NTLDR is missing and then I can only restart the computer. Im not sure what else to do. I have switched around my RAM sticks and had no results. I have had a virus infect my boot sector before, but I followed the steps provided from here to solve that issue. Normally, I hibernate my computer, instead of shutting down. I feel that might have been the cause of the problem.

I run Windows XP Home Edition with three hard drives and 4 gigs of RAM.
If anyone could help or knows a solution, it would be greatly appreciated

 

kkoala2112, greetings. Have you attempted to let it boot into safe mode? Did you make any changes IE new driver updates, new software loads etc prior to having these issues?

If I am reading this correctly, you have your OS (WIN XP Home) on one of the 3 hard drives. If you attempt to boot to one of the hard drives that does not have an OS on it, you will get the NTLDR is missing (this stands for New Technology Loader) and is needed to boot up the OS.

If you CAN boot into safe mode, try restoring to the last restore date prior to having the issues you are having now.

 

Yes, I have tried to boot into all three variations of safe mode. Every option fills the screen with the files loading, but gets stuck after load the files and then just reboots. I have tried booting from all three hard drives, yeilding the same results. The screen tells me windows did not start correctly etc..

I do remember Windows may have been installing the automatic updates around the time I last put the coimptuer into hibernation. Could that have corrupted some window system files? I have my Windows instillation disk, so is there a way to find the corrupt file and replace it?

 

Did you hibernate as the updates were being installed or did you wait for the updates to install before hibernating?

The fact that you have the Windows installation disk is a good thing. Due to the fact that you can not boot into safe mode all the way, we are going to attempt a back door trick to restore to a previous restore point.

System restore from Recovery Console.

Go to boot menu on start up and select CD ROM This will make the computer boot off the CD ROM drive. Select “R” once you are in the recovery console.

When you get to the recovery console follow these instructions.
• Type cd c:\ then Enter
• This will bring you from C:\WINDOWS to C:\
• Then cd system~1\_resto~1 then Enter
• Type dir then Enter
When you hit enter it will list all the restore points’ folders like rp1, rp2 …….. If the restore points have more than one page then u have to keep on hitting the <Enter> key to view the last restore point folder. You will have to choose the second to last option folder
• Type cd rp {the second to the last restore point no.} (Note: Example: cd rp9, if rp9 is the second to the last restore point where the last restore point no. is 10
• Then type cd snapshot
Now the command prompt will look like this c:\system~1\_resto~1\rp9\snapshot
• Type: copy(space) _registry_machine_system(space) c:\windows\system32\config\system
• Press enter
• You may be prompted if you want to over write file. You will see the options (Y)es (N)o (A)ll type “A”
• Press enter
• Then type: copy(space) _registry_machine_software(space) c:\windows\system32\config\software
• You may be prompted if you want to over write file. You will see the options (Y)es (N)o (A)ll type “A”
• Press enter
• Type “exit”

If you get an access denied error when doing the above, then do the following at the recovery console:

Type CD\ then press Enter
Type cd windows\system32\config then press Enter
Type ren system system.bak then press Enter
Type exit press Enter

Your PC will reboot, go back into the Recovery Console and then you will hopefully have access.

If you still cannot get access in anyway to your installation in the recovery console then your SAM (System Account Manager) database files may be corrupt. There is no way you can restore these with the recovery console. You may need to do a fresh install. Hopefully it won't come to that.

Let us know if this helped. Good Luck!!!