Windows XP Home Edition boot problems!

Two days ago I was using my computer with no problems, ran a successful back-up to an external backup drive, then shut the whole thing down for the night.

Yesterday, when I turned on my computer again, it would only boot up to that black screen with the Safe Mode options. Safe Mode and Safe Mode with Networking worked just fine, so I did what I needed to do on the computer and just put up with not being able to print, etc.

Later I went into the Recovery Console and ran CHDSK. All sectors were fine, and I shut the computer down for the night.

This morning I was able to boot up in Safe Mode again, and this time I followed the instructions I found elsewhere in this forum to run a Windows XP Repair Install using the WinXP CD that came with the computer. Now it won't even boot up in Safe Mode and runs in an endless loop of restart/shut down.

Based on some advice I read here, I tried doing the Windows XP Repair Install using a WinXP OEM CD I bought when I got a new hard drive for my laptop. Same result.

During the endless loop of restart/shut down, a blue error screen flashes. I was able to finally view what it says. Here's the error message:

STOP: 0X0000007E (0XC0000005, 0X804D9452, 0XF7B1D080, 0XF7B1CD7C)

Can anybody help me with this? I'd like to avoid having to do a clean install of XP because of all the additional software I'd have to reload, but since I did back my critical data up just before this started to happen, I'll go that route if I have to.

I make my living with the computer, so any help would be appreciated. If this has been addressed elsewhere, please point me to the thread. I've spent hours so far scouring the threads here and haven't found the exact same situation.

 

Unfortunately, no. I had disabled System Restore to clean up some malware a while ago and neglected to enable it again, so that's not an option.

 

What program did you use to make the backup? Wouldn't it make sense to use the backup to restore your system?

 

I use Bounceback Express, which came with an external Seagate backup drive. I only back up critical data, not the whole system, though.

As I said, I can restore my critical data, but really would prefer to avoid having to reinstall all of the software that I have on that drive If I can.