XP Home Boot Problems

[RVFmal]

I have a laptop that is giving me problems in booting up - it won't!

I have tried using the recovery disks that came with the PC to fix the problem without overwriting the personal files and even tried booting up with a boot disk that I created in XP.

It keeps going to the page that says that windows could not start successfully due to a hardware or software change that occurred. It gives me the option to start up in the 3 Safe modes, in the Last Known Config that worked or in Normal mode.

I have tried all of them, but it keeps taking me back to the same screen.

Is there any way of rebooting the notebook? If not I assume that I will have to re-install windows, but that would entail formatting the disk which I do not want to do due to the amount of data on the disk.

Can anyone recommend something?

[Statica]

You have a couple of options before you need to wipe and reinstall. The first option is to try to get to safe mode and then doing a system restore to an earlier time. This is the least of evils, as it essentially takes you back a few days on your computer.
The other option is to do a repair install of XP that will essentially replace the existing version of XP with a new version. You will not need to format your drive, but you will lose programs and service packs.

[RVFmal]

Originally Posted by Statica You have a couple of options before you need to wipe and reinstall. The first option is to try to get to safe mode and then doing a system restore to an earlier time. This is the least of evils, as it essentially takes you back a few days on your computer. The other option is to do a repair install of XP that will essentially replace the existing version of XP with a new version. You will not need to format your drive, but you will lose programs and service packs.

Statica. Thanks for the input. However I have tried to boot in Safe Mode, but it keeps returning me to the same screen where it gives you the options of booting in Safe, in last known config or Normal mode.

To repaiir install I take it it gives me the option on booting from the installation CD? Will this wipe out the Outlook personal folders as the most important information on the disk are those. They have not been backed up to any other folder, but are in the standard format that Outlook stores them in.

The programs I am not worried about as I can easily re-install those.

[glc]

Remove the hard drive from the laptop and either put it in an external housing or slave it into a desktop computer to recover your files. Here's a cheap notebook to standard IDE adapter if you need it:

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HD-108&cat=HDD

The Outlook data files (outlook.pst, archive.pst) are buried in your Documents and Settings profile and are at risk with a reinstall.

[RVFmal]

Cheers GLC. I thought that may be the case. Will find an adapter (am in South Africa) and slave it.