Windows XP freezes during start up (safe mode not working)

Basically Im not the most computer savvy person in the world so any help is more than appreciated! (grillings dont help either.....)

I have XP and every time it goes to boot the windows logo comes up and the blue bar will just freeze after its fifth or so cycle.

I tried booting in "safe mode" but again it freezes.

I tried "booting using last safe configuration" again blue bar freezes after fifth cycle.

I have tried booting from the hard drive after using the F10 option and I get the black screen offering to start from "safe mode" ect. None of these options work.

I found this while searching for a reply but not sure if it will help or how to get there if the comp will not start.

Heres the answer - "You can fix this by doing a chkdsk c: /f . This will fix the corruption and hopefully get your computer to boot completely"

How do i access this and scan before comp crashes?

Any help is appreciated.

Thnx.

 

It does sound like something is wrong with some boot sector. The prompt that you would need to go to enter that can be accessed via your XP install disk. If you need instructions on how to do that just ask. What were you doing before this happened?

 

Thanks for the reply. Basically i had the problem so i managed to load the computer one more time. I loaded the anti virus and ran the spy ware cleaner before i shut it down. After i tried to reboot the computer nothing would work, not safe mode or any other seetings on the black screen.

Basically i cant even start the computer to run anything. It freezes and will not start for $h!*

Any help and further instructions would help a great deal as I suck with computers! <----

 

Well 1, boot sector isn't the right in case you try to look it up, I just forget what exactly it's called. And also with what I'm goign to tell you you're going to lose any data on the PC and also you're going to need to install disk, and a key.

 

the first thing you need to do is the chkdsk c: /f . this will fix this problem 90 percent of the time.

You need to have a xp boot cd , to get into the dos screen. From there you can type the command.

 

Thanks for the help,

I tried to run chk dsk and it ran and didnt detect or fix the problem. The computer still gets to the loading bar then freezes. When i try to boot in safe mode it gets to the black screen and freezes at APC.sys I think it was.

Im working on the computer now as it actually started..... so more than happy that I can back up my files. It actually went past the blue bar and loaded really fast!? WTF? So i know its still working and just have to do more research.

Any more help is appreciated. I have checked all my drivers and there are no problems or missing drivers. Also the virus scan came up negative after a thorough scan.

In reference to "21Q" reply........ lol ..... that was the most negative resonse ever I feel. Any "other" help is greeeeeealy appreciated. (help been the operative word!)

 

Two things to try in any order is,

put any XP disc into your CD\DVD drive and boot up to it, when you get the options, press R to start the recovery console. when in the recovery console and you have entered a administrator password if prompted type the following (i am assuming C: is your xp drive), make sure you type it with the spaces.

chkdsk C: /r /p

This will take some time to complete, when complete give it a go.

Another thing that can cause problems like this is bad hardware, hopefuly not your motherboard. assuming this is a desktop remove all cards (NIC, modem, sound etc) exept one stick of memory (and video card unless you have on board card). If system boots up, put them back one at a time to find the problem device.

Give your motherboard a visual when inside system looking in particular for any domed capacitors leaking brown residue.

 

Nah just use a linux live cd that'll tell ya whether mobo,ram,graphics card etc are fine or not,it just can't test the hard drive side of things

If you had a virus the best thing to do is a reformat,if you decide to repair keep an eye on things it tends to get weird if the infection was bad enough, to save any data place the hdd in an external
housing & extract it,tho you'll need to scan the files first for any type of infection,if you want to save contacts list you'll need to unhide files,do a web search for the instructions

 

Thanks for both the replies...... both are welcome replies. When I have time later I will try both ideas.

Reply soon and thanks

 

Do a google search for "open source data recovery",you might be able to retrieve any important data from another comp if you load your damaged drive as a slave,there are commercial tools like getdataback or acronis disk director,they are free trial,idealy you want to recover partitions if poss once that's done the data should be there hopefully,the other option if all else fails is to reinstall windows back to the same part of the hdd it was originally installed on you may strike it lucky & it may show any extended partitions

 

Thnx scorp NZ your the man........

At work and waiting for this weekend to tackle this monster problem!

Thanks again.

Ben

 

puppylinux is your baby.. has full ntfs read/write support and even a working burning application... no install needed.. start it with the # puppy pfix=toram option to free up your cd/dvd drive.. then you can mount.. inspect.. and back up anything and everything...

http://www.puppylinux.org/

warning.. after running this little pup from ram you will wonder why you ever use the slow and bloated M$ offering.

 

Speaking of trying to recover data you wouldn't bloody believe it,lets just say "a major balls up"..lol..anyway running the hdd in an external or as a slave in another comp under windows, run this app,it's free,ok if you find it doesn't detect the faulty drive as soon as you first run it,open "computer management",under "admin tools",by rights you may see your hdd listed as unformatted,right click on the name DISK 1 or whatever disk it is & select "intialise" (if intialise isn't there then continue),once that's done you should now be able to get find&mount to see it,you may have to re launch it, with any luck the drive now shows,highlight the drive & click scan,assuming chkdsk hasn't borked the files even further (in future when an issue like this comes up DON'T chkdsk,use a data recovery software first or a live cd,as chkdsk can make it worse),ok so you might see your partitions now after a scan,right clik & mount them & withdraw your data,my fingers are crossed,oh yeah regardless anyway when you reformat or whatever afterwards,create an extended partition & store your pic's,music etc there,coz even if you were to say overwrite the windows install with a repair but stop it half way thru or stop it at all or that part of the drive is stuffed,the extended partitions will still be there,even if windows can't boot & you should be able to get ya data back


http://findandmount.com/

 

What.. you need an app to do that?

hdparm -W /path/to/device

It's built in to proper operating systems by design.. useful tools like that as standard across the board.. XD

 

Right.......

Firstly thanks for all the help on this subject. Here's what I have tried and still no luck in solving this problem.

I managed to turn the computer on and made a backup of all the important stuff and music files that I couldn't stand to lose. I used a complicated method called "Nero" and some "DVD's"

All joking aside after I back up everything I tried chckdsk again and running a different anti virus. (NOD32) Again this came up negative.

After I run the anti virus I checked for mal ware and other junk and this came up with some tracking cookies that were deleted.

After I restarted the computer and guess what, it failed to load. Froze on exactly the same place as before. When the windows XP logo comes up with the blue bar scrolling underneath. It always freezes on the fifth cycle with the blue bar stopping during this point.

Any ideas on what it could be?? I have no idea on what it could be and what to do.......

 

This is a really long shot but have you replaced an ide (ribbon) drive with a SATA (cable) connection? Saw that except I couldn't even get to the Window's logo screen and was slow as molesses when it did boot. Fix was to reinstall an ide DVD Drive and reset the Bios to default specification. If you get back into Window's, try a scan with Dr Web's Cureit; by the way, you don't have two AV's running real time, do you?

 

thank for the suggestion..... no no two AVs running just NOD32 and thats it. I had AVAST but removed that completely then added NOD.

As for the SATA cable.... no as well i have never added any SATA ports or cables.

Whats that "cureit" aplication you were talking about?

Thnx again,

Jammin

 

Basically. an online Av scan that you update each time you use it, nothing installed except the update while you scan: http://www.freedrweb.com/