Windows wont boot just restarts

The_KiD

The_KiD

The_KiD

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Am looking at a laptop for someone who said it is runing real slow and keeps crashing.

Managed to get it in to Windows and clear up programs that were running slow then started to run windows updates.

Right at the end installing SP2 as it was doing the clearin up of temporary files the whole thing hung and then restarted. After restart it showed an error during startup saying "could not load biosinfo.sys and hangs there. Safe mode doesnt help either.

Insert XP disk, go through motions of installing new copy, but then choose to repair existing copy and all seems to go well then it restarts to finish installation and it just keeps restarting after the windows is loading screen. Again safe mode doesnt help.

Now I can just re-install windows from scratch, but I really need to save the "my docs" info from the laptop first.

So my question is how? Windows wont load, safe mode wont load and booting with knoppix CD hangs too.

If I do a completely new install of windows will it keep the My Docs info on the laptop? Or how else can I get them off?
 
try another live linux disc..

probably something wrong with hardware, like ram maybe? if it's hanging when you boot a live disc

if install windows, i'm 90% sure it won't delete my documents if you don't select the 'format drive' part..

what i'd do is put the hard drive in a usb2 caddy thing for laptops, def worth getting one if you're fixing laptops a lot :)
 
Cheers Bledd, just tried the Windowsa repair option again while waiting on response here and it has got a little further this fingers crossed it will work.

If so I will get files off and do a resinstall anyways just to be on the safe side :)
 
If it has a disk drive you can make an NT floppy disk which can read and copy from the partitions. Though I would really recommend ERD commander though that is a lot of cash (as it enables network drives, etc.)

Other than that you can look around for Bootup CD's as some of these will have utilities to read NTFS partitions and write to CD (assuming it has a CD writer) which may help.

Other than that you could get hold of a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE cable and connect it to your PC or a 2.5" to USB (I recommend these as they are only around £20 and come with 2.5" / 3.5" and SATA connectors so saves dismantling your PC).



M.
 
Thanks buddy, but thankfully I managed to get it to repair second time round, got the files off and Windows is now installed, just got patching and drivers to do now :)
 
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