Unable to boot to Windows XP Desktop
Here is something I slapped together from my experience as a tech all day, everyday, for too long.
These are suggestions on things you can try if you can't boot to Windows XP desktop.
If you want to backup your files:
Try to backup your data before attempting any kind of repair to your system. Here is a simple and cheap suggestion. Buy an external USB hard drive enclosure, they can be found for around $29. This way, you can temporarily remove your hard drive from your computer, install it in the USB enclosure and connected via USB to any other system and copy over your data. Note if your file system is NTFS, as is the case most of the time with Windows XP and 2000, you won't be able to access the files if you plug it onto a Windows 9x/ME system.
The files you want to backup will likely be within your user(s) profile. After connecting the USB enclosure with your hard drive in it to another system preferably running Windows XP or 2000, it will assign a drive letter for it. You can then access that drive through “My Computer” or Windows Explorer. You might want to scan that drive for viruses before going any further. Once you open your drive, go to “Documents and Settings” folder then find your username folder, it may have your name or be called “Owner” or “User”. If you have more than one user you obviously will have more than one username folder. Don't worry about the following four folders if they appear: All Users, Default User, LocalService and NetworkService. Once in a “username” folder, you probably want to copy the Desktop (may contain only shortcuts but some people save files there), Favorites and My Documents (may be called Username's Documents) folders. Save those onto the hard drive your USB enclosure is connected to. Do this for any other user you may have.
Also if you use Outlook Express for email and want to save your email and address book you can. These are located in hidden folders, to be able to see hidden folders, click on “Tools” in the top menu of Windows Explorer, then click “Folder Options”, click the “View” tab, go down and click to select “Show hidden files and folders” and click “Ok”.
To save your address book, still within the “Local Settings\username folder, go to “Application Data”, then “Microsoft” and then copy the “Address Book” folder.
To save your email, again within the “Local Settings\username folder, go to “Local Settings”, “Application Data”, Identities”, next folder is a big long number like “{0C99E7CD-2119-4A33-8C58-FF498AAA4A0B}”, “Microsoft” and copy the “Outlook Express” folder.
If you get or can get to Windows XP boot menu:
Try selecting “last known good configuration”
Boot to Windows “safe mode” preferably with “network support”, this way most antivirus and antispyware programs will let you download updates and then you can scan your system for viruses, spyware and adware.
In safe mode you can restore your system to an earlier date. Click “Start”, go to “Programs” or “All Programs”, then to “Accessories”, “System Tools” and click on “System Restore”. Pick a earlier date hope it works.
Also in safe mode you can disable many startup applications by clicking on “Start” then “Run” and type “msconfig”, click “Ok”. Click the “Startup” tab, you can uncheck all items for now. Also click on the “Services” tab, then at the bottom, check “Hide all Microsoft Services” and uncheck the rest, click “Ok” then click “Restart” and cross your fingers.
If “Last known good configuration” or “Safe mode” don't work for you, try “Safe mode with command prompt”. Once at the command prompt you can try running system restore from there by typing “cd C:\WINDOWS\system32\Restore” and press “Enter”, then type “rstrui.exe” and press “Enter”. This should start the System Restore interface where can try restoring your system to an earlier date.
If the above is not an option or didn't work for you, you can try some commands from the Recovery Console depending on your problem.
The following has helped me fix some customer's systems with problems like missing files on Windows startup such as missing NTLDR or C:\windows\system32\config\ files.
Boot from the Windows XP CD (see post #2 in this thread if you can't boot from CDROM). Press “R” to select the option that says “To repair a Windows XP installation using recovery console”. It will then ask you which Windows installation you want to log onto and should show one with the number 1 so press “1” then “Enter”. If it asks you for an administrator password and one exists, enter it, otherwise just press “Enter”.
There are a few things we can try here to attempt a repair on your hard drive.
First try running the CHKDSK command. The CHKDSK command checks the specified drive and repairs or recovers the drive if the drive requires it. The command also marks any bad sectors and it recovers readable information.
Type “CHKDSK /P” then press “Enter”. This does an exhaustive check of the drive and corrects any errors.
Also try “CHKDSK /R” them press “Enter”. This option locates bad sectors and recovers readable information and can take a long time to complete.
You can try and see if this fixed your problem by rebooting now, type “Exit” then press enter to reboot.
If your system still won't boot. Boot from the Windows XP CD to the recovery console again as mentioned above and try the following commands.
Type “FIXBOOT” then press “Enter. This command writes a new Windows boot sector code on the system partition.
Also try “FIXMBR” and press “Enter”. This command repairs the MBR of the boot partition.
For more details on the above commands, see
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314058.
The above may help you if your problem is software related. Don't forget to check for hardware problems as mentioned by Rick in post #1.
Hard drive and RAM problems are fairly common causes for Windows not booting. On several occasions I have seen bad RAM causing Windows to generate misleading error messages like missing files and such.
Also incorrect CPU and RAM clock speed settings in the BIOS can also cause similar problems. Sometimes a dead CMOS battery, a surge or power loss and reset the BIOS to default values which may not have the right settings for you CPU and RAM or boot order.
Power supplies can also fail. And most people would expect them to either work or not, but they can sometimes get damages by a power surge or overheating so this may be something else to check.
A failing video card can is also possible. If your screen is messed us from the very first boot screen, that's a good clue to change the video card. I've also seen corrupt video drivers causing a blank screen when booting to Windows normal mode, in this case you can boot to safe mode and uninstall the driver and let Windows re-install a driver on next boot.
Worst component to fail would be the motherboard in which case you would have to replace it. This is the main component in your system and is the most time consuming to replace as you must re-install Windows XP or at least run a repair as mentioned in post #1.
Hope this helps at least some of you, good luck to all.
