Dell XP Pro restarts during boot

[holidaychicken]

hi all, hope someone can help.
i have been looking at a friends pc, a dell inspiron 531, which we think had a virus on it that has corrupted the boot sequence as it continually restarts during the initial boot just after the xp screens.
it is a dell machine that originally had vista on it but i think it was changed to XP Pro as the sticker on the case is vista but its definately xp pro installed. the initial boot screen still says dell.

i dont have any boot discs or recovery discs and i have tried an xp home disc on the off chance it might let me do a repair but it didnt, i tried a downloaded xp repair/utilities disc of the net that allowed me access to to use the repair files where i used fixboot that did nothing and i also tried fixmbr but it said the file was different so i didnt proceed with that.
i was hoping to choose the install windows option and then repair the exisitng installation but using the xp recovery disc of the net it said it couldnt find the key and i tried a dell xp home operating system disc and that didnt give the option to repair only re install.
is there a way of downloading an xp pro dell install disc to try and repair the installed op system as i cant afford to lose the files by doing a clean install.

i tried the ultimate boot cd but that said boot failed but was hoping for something along those lines

i am going nuts trying t think of a solution.
i can probably get my hands on the xp pro disc that was used for the install but noit for a week or so and need to repair it before then and not sure if thats going to work anyway.

aplogies i cant access it to list the other kit in it.

many thanks

[faint545]

I would try booting in safe mode first. If you are able to get into the OS in safe mode, I would then check out the start up items in MSCONFIG.

[holidaychicken]

hi Faint, thanks for the reply, it wouldnt let me boot in safe mode, but i have made a development if you can help. i have bought a sata drive docking station and copied the files off the hard drive to my back up drive on my pc. i can see all the files including the windows files on the drive. is there anything i can check or change in any of the files?
cheers

[faint545]

Hm. Have you tried a repair installation with a XP Pro CD?

However, if this was happening to me, I would probably just save some time from trying different solutions and just back up the data on the hard drive and re-install the OS. Then once you have successfully re-installed, install all necessary drivers and then make a backup image using Macrium Reflect (http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp) and save it to a DVD or external HDD or whatever backup solution you have.

[holidaychicken]

hm indeed, i havent got an xp pro disc but wasnt sure if i could download something like a repair disc, well i did sort off already but it didnt work. when i tried to access the repair part it said it couldnt find the code or cd key and that was it failed.

i should have the xp pro disc in a few days but i havent got anything to use to re install at the moment. the only key i have right now is the vista key that came with the original pc but again no discs

all the files are copying as we speak so at least i'll have a back up which was always my main concern. these docking stations are cool
just wish i could get into the windows files on this hard drive and put things right while i have got it on my pc

cheers

[faint545]

i should have the xp pro disc in a few days but i havent got anything to use to re install at the moment.

If you have a XP Pro disk you will be able to re-install. Only problem is the need of a CD Key. Originally, you had XP installed. You can just use that CD key.

[holidaychicken]

that will probably be the answer, i dont suppose you know which boot folder/files might be at fault do you, i can see all the windows files and system files etc, i wonder if i copied a file off my pc it might work, or at least tried it, i suppose all the config and boot files are different but wondered if the virus had attacked a common folder or file and perhaps renamed it or deleted it.

thanks for your help though

[faint545]

I believe it's safer to just re install as that completely wipes everything including the registry.

[glc]

If the recovery partition is still there, you can simply press Ctrl+F11 on startup and reinstall Vista. You are not legal now anyway unless your sticker on the PC is for Vista Business or Ultimate. Home versions of Vista can only be legally downgraded to XP Home, and Vista Basic has no downgrade rights. To install XP Pro when you don't have downgrade rights will require a license purchase.