Windows not booting, not even into safe mode?

danceMB · 5 Jun 2006 at 08:19

Tried booting into windows yesterday, but it only gets as far as the windows xp screen with that green bar, the bar moves for a few seconds, stops then the computer reboots itself, and thats what it does every time now.

I did try and install a new graphics card, but put back my old one that always works but still the same problem now. It detects both my HDD's in the BIOS.

The most worrying thing is that it wont even boot into safe mode, as at some point when I choose that it reboots before it gets to Windows as well, and even tried to re-install windows, but when it reads that its "identifying" the drives, it just freezes when it reads my main drive, so it looks like something is definatly wrong here

LizardKing · 5 Jun 2006 at 09:18

Sounds like your mbr has got corrupted, you could boot with your windows cd to a command prompt then type "fix mbr" or "fix boot".
Had a similar problem that the windows cd wouldnt even sort out, ended up having to use a linux installer to sort out the partition tables.
If the windows cd doesnt help then it might be easier to make a bootable cd with fdisk on

danceMB · 5 Jun 2006 at 09:35

I might be stupid here, but what is mbr?

I would like to boot to a command prompt with my windows CD, but it wont let me. I guess I could try and boot to the command prompt with a boot disk that im sure I have lying around somewhere.

One thing that might or might not be significant is that it wont even let me re-install windows, because when I try, it comes up that it is "identifying" my HDD, but then it just stays there and goes no further, so not even that works. As that doesnt work, im at a loss

LizardKing · 5 Jun 2006 at 09:48

MBR is your master boot record, without that windows cant read the drive right, hence the reason it wont boot or install

When booting from the windows cd it should detect the old installation and ask if you want to reinstall windows or repair the current instalation, choose repair, but not via a repair cd. then it will boot to a command prompt
Or something along those lines i cant remeber the exact sequence the cd goes through

danceMB · 5 Jun 2006 at 13:47

I did choose the repair option, but before it does that it has to "identify" both of my hard drives, but it wont identify my 120gig hard drive I have, it just stops there and doesnt go any further. I ran it all last night and still this morning it was the same, so im at a loss what to do if the windows cd doesnt let me repair or re-install

y2w2003 · 5 Jun 2006 at 15:09

Sorry to get involved in this thread, however i seem to have the same problem as him, can't load into any mode.

It happened so randomly, my pc just rebooted when i was on it, surfing the web and since then no luck.

I tried the fixmbr and fixboot and neither gave me any luck.

Are there any other solutions?

y2w2003 · 5 Jun 2006 at 15:17

Oh my god, was just going to re-install windows and i saw my partiton... it has completly wiped out, only 1mb used up on the partition from the 78gigs. How on earth did this happen?

rich_g85 · 5 Jun 2006 at 16:43

If Windows is getting as far as the logo with the scrolling bar, I don't *think* there's anything wrong with the MBR. What's probably happening is the PC is encountering a STOP error (blue screen of death) and then automatically rebooting as per the setting in System properties.

You can disable rebooting on system failure once per bootup, if you tap F8 after your BIOS finishes and before the XP logo screen appears and select (wait for it..) Disable automatic reboot on system Failure. This will at least allow you to view the error message (note the 0x00000yy) number (the 'yy' will give you clues as to what's wrong). You can then use another PC (I assume you have one as you're posting on here!) to find out what's caused the Stop error and *hopefully* fix it..

Uhtred · 5 Jun 2006 at 17:00

I had one the other weekt hat would blue screen starting up even with safe mode. A checkdisk /r sorted it from the recovery consol, it was the hard disk on its way out. You could also try fix mbr or a windows repair if you have no joy with that. Also unplug everything you can from your machine, including pci cards

y2w2003 · 5 Jun 2006 at 22:38

Ye, the chkdsk /r did the job for me too, i tried that before either of your posts, but thanks anyway,i only just remembered about this thread.

danceMB · 6 Jun 2006 at 01:16

Im having my IT expert come round and have a look at it as im unsure what is the best solution and he will know. Means yet more money to an uncertain future for my machine, but I cant afford the Uber machine im hoping for sometime next year. Pretty tempting to treat it to a new HDD, that would solve the problem straight away im sure

rich_g85 · 6 Jun 2006 at 07:00

danceMB said:
Pretty tempting to treat it to a new HDD, that would solve the problem straight away im sure

Again, I doubt there is anything physically wrong with the hard disk, it's the data on it which has a problem. Ask him to format & reinstall Windows for you - it's your only real option if you've tried a repair.

danceMB · 6 Jun 2006 at 22:41

Thats true I suppose, trouble is all the time & effort that it takes putting everything back on there again, takes a good few nights to get it back to where I want it. Would be tempting to have that 7200.10 320gig drive, supposedly makes things faster, should do considering my HDD are 3 years old now!