XP installation problems

teulk · 30 Jun 2010 at 21:57

A while back i defraged my pc and following that it would no longer boot, just went into a constant re-boot cycle. I decided to fromat the HDD and do a fresh install of XP. All went well, it even booted fine immediately after the install but now all i get is a black screen - no windows xp splash screen.
I decided to leave my pc about 5mins to see if anything would happen - i came back and found a white bar with gaps in along the bottom with a solid part moving along very slowly from left to right..............any ideas ?

Duke · 30 Jun 2010 at 22:12

You need to find out why it happened in the first place rather than just re-installing, as defragging won't damage the system. Try running mem test and HD tools from something like Ultimate Boot CD or Hiren's CD. Also 'CHKDSK /r' in Windows Recovery Console is worth doing.

teulk · 30 Jun 2010 at 22:17

I will do CHKDSK /r tomorrow buts what with the bar along the bottom of the screen - is as if its doing a scan.

Philtor · 1 Jul 2010 at 08:22

I would hazzard a guess that your HDD is borked. As Duke said download Ultimate boot CD and use this to check your HDD.

Duke · 1 Jul 2010 at 08:51

teulk said:
buts what with the bar along the bottom of the screen - is as if its doing a scan.

Thats the 2000/XP progress bar which you don't notice normally as it goes past quick and is sometimes hidden anyway. You get it when going in Safe Mode though.