We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully...

I have a Toshiba Satellite m55-s3293 laptop that came loaded with XP home Edition. I pretty sure that I upgraded to XP Pro. It will not load and gives me the following message: “We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this.”

It won’t start in safe mode or normally nor will it start in the last known good configuration setting. When I try each mode it defaults to the original error message…I do not have the original Toshiba disks but the product key is on the back of the unit. I do have a copy of the XP disk. My other issue is the CD drive does not work so I can’t re-load XP to see if it works.
Here’s what I’ve done:

- I have purchased a hard drive enclosure and have copied many of my files to my external hard drive. I couldn’t copy some of the files (asked for permission but kept defaulting to the question) but it’s not a life or death situation.
- I have also purchased a portable cd drive in hopes that it can be used in resolving this issue

Any assistance is appreciated

 

Can't firgure out how to do it. I have a Toshiba SuperMulti Drive. I loaded the software on hard drive and placed it back in the laptop. I received the same error. How can I get the dvd to communicate to the dvd - in or outside of the laptop?

 

Both the dvd & drive enclosure have y usb cables.

 

Ok, I resolved the DVD issue...I was told not to use the consol and use the install instead and xp will give me another chance to do the repair without losing the saved data on my HD....It worked as prescribed untilto after the accept lisc. agreement screen. Instead of allowing me to begin a repair my options are:
1. To set up windows xp on the selected items, press enter
2. To create a partition in the unpartitioned space, press c
3. To delete the selected partition, press D.

Here's what's selcted:
C: Partition1 (SQ00398) (NTFS) 95205 MB (57693 MB free)

I'm now stuck. Could this default be because this is a different xp version from the original istalled ver.? I'm using XP Pro and am pretty certain that I upgraded to this version and that's what's current on the system. At this stage the options I should have are to repair or new install. What should I do?


Here's a link to the instruction I was using. Thank you:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/instxprepair1_6.htm