Lost

[bounty]

This afternoon i turned off my computer and when i returned to turn it back on,it rebooted after the 'windows starting/starting windows screen' i can't get into safe mode b/c the screen fades into blue but then reboots. . I have tried repair but when it says it will reboot and does there are no more screens concerning the repair but just the hd scans it does then back to 'windows starting' then reboot. I do not want to do a reinstall cause it is prob. a simple error that is causing this :\

[mjkovis]

First off post your system specs. What version are you using of Windows too?

Under the Windows XP OS there are a lot of different causes for your problem, that I have found.

AK

[bounty]

oh sorry about that.
windows xp:home edition sp1
512ram
2 harddrives 120 and a 40 windows is on the 40.
p4

[mr_spider3]

it sound like something is missing for windows to load and your probably going to have to reload windows.

[mjkovis]

Do you have Roxio 5.0 installed by any chance? Have you tried sticking your Win XP CD in to try the Recovery Console?

AK

[bounty]

i tried the m$ fix article which seems to match my problem yet the results are still the same. Just as more info when the computer is scanning the harddrives i recieve something that goes like this "trailing entries from file.....then it gives a system restore file/folder. The text is there for a few seconds then windows loads up and reboots. I do not have roxio btw.. :\

[bounty]

i decided to just reinstall xp on a new harddrive. To make sure though, my cd archives are still located on my 120seagate HD how can i go about making sure that they are still there? That way no data is lost with a reinstall b/c they still exist on the hd's.

[mjkovis]

You should just be able to install the 120GB Seagate as your secondary drive. From there you should be able to access your information. Therefore your new HD will be the master drive when you install XP again.

AK

[bounty]

sounds good. As far as i recall and the logic my 120 is broken down into a 60 and a 90 give or take some...i would think that i would've installed xp on the 90 assuming that i would have alot of programs and left the 60 for the media also known as my cd archives. With fdisk the 60 comes up without a name and file system yet the xp cd shows both name and system which is fat32. Which one would be right in this case?

[mjkovis]

I am not sure on that question. If you plug that old HD in as the secondary drive you should recover your information without a problem, unless your HD was corrupted (just an example). If the XP CD is showing both partitions then it should be right, since you are saying you had both of those partitions. Once again, I am not sure there...

AK