Windows startup problem

[nubbler]

I have a HP Pavillion a630n and when I try booting it up, it starts fie but only gets to the Xp splash screen with that progress bar that has the 3 boxes cycling through it and it does a few cycles and then the computer restarts. It does this over and over.

Not sure If its a file that is corrupted or a harware issue. I've tries safe node, last known good config but same thing.

I will mention that I had hooked up a hard drive that failed which I took out of a external enclosure and tried to see if I could ge tit to work, I coudn't. I then started the computer up and it was running for about a day then someone shut it off via the switch in the front becaue it was really slow and they couldn't do anything on it. Then it never started up and now it just keeps doing what I desribed above.

I was going to do a system recovery but I wnated to get the files off it first so I tok the drive out and hooked it up to that external enclosure that I took the failed drive out of but when I hooked it up to my laptop, only the recovery partition of the drive appears in my computer. Also the hard drive is really busy and making a lot of noise doing something, I wasn't sure what so I removed it because I didn't know if it was going to cause me to loose data. Maybe I should just let it do it's thing? and the partition with the OS will show up?

Any idea what this is or what I have to do to fix it and get the computer working?

[flanzig1]

Those kind of boot problems you discribe tends to point to a hard drive going bad. Especially since you are getting noise and head thrashing sounds.

[nubbler]

Thats two HDD failures in under a week for me.

If I hook the drive up through the external enclosure, should I be able to see both partitions?

[glc]

Probably not - you are probably going to have to try data recovery solutions.

[nubbler]

So would it show up if the drive worked fine?

Also since this is a HP computer with the recovery on the HDD how am I supposed to get an OS back when I get a new HDD?

Or does the recovery partition have everything I need to get started from scratch?

[glc]

Not exactly - if you have not made a set of recovery CD's using the HP utility you are out of luck. You will have to buy a set from HP or find another means of reinstalling.

[amdalex]

If you don't have any disks or a way to get them you will have to buy XP from Microsoft a long with a new hard drive.

[ROYP123]

As GLC says, if you have not made a backup set of disks, you need to buy a set of recovery disks from HP. Don't buy new XP, the operating system is on the recovery disks. The last set I ordered from HP cost $ 12.00 A new XP disk will cost about $ 90 or so,

[nubbler]

I was not even actually aware that I could make those CDs, I never thought far enough aead as to what would happen if the drive failed. But it's good to know, thanks.

I decided I would try one more thing before I gave up on it and it worked. I put the HDD back in the computer, made a Knoppix DVD, booted it up and it had no problem reading the drive. I backed up all my files and did system recovery and it works fine now. Must have been a corrupt OS file or something. And as for why it acted so wierd when I hooked it up to that external enclosure, I don't know. Maybe it doesn't support partitions.