Windows XP will not boot

[whocares00]

Hi

i've had this problem i dont know how many times so far and i honestly dont know how to fix it... i restarted my comp today and windows didnt boot up anymore.... the comp goes past the setup screen, and then just stops with a blinking cursor at the top of the screen and doesnt load up windows....

can anyone please tell me what to do, because i am desperate, i have some files i didnt have time to backup on that drive and i would like to try anything possible OTHER than to re-format my drive, which would cause me to lose those files.....

thank you very much...

[Ob1]

try a repair on windows by using your xp cd.
boot to the cd and select the second repair option. you wont lose any data doing this.

[sgtspector]

Boot your winxp cd and select install, then when asked select to do a repair install. This is not Not a recovery install. This may preserve your files while allowing you to reinstall the os. Its not fool proff but its' worth a try. There are other methods of accessing your harddrive using utilities that can be laoded on a bootable cd rom. Once it is booted you can access and copy yoru valuable files and then reformat with no loss of critical data. Once such utility is the Ultimate Boot cd.
You can also try to create a BartPE boot disk. It will also allow you access your files and save them even if you cant get in to the os. Here is a site with a tutorial that will allow to create the cd http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ Good luck.