I posted in a different thread from someone who also had this problem, but I can not find the thread. I have a Gateway (XP) and now get a message stating, we are sorry for the inconvienence but windows didnt start up sucessfully,,,give 5 options to start, including safe mode, NONE work. What can I do? Gateway says its an easy fix and I wont lose anything, but I have to pay $49 to talk to them. Can someone help?
Have you tried the system restore feature? (i.e., pop the WindowsXP cd in the drive, boot up and use the restore option)
I have the disk in and it says: Microsoft Windows XP(TM) Recovery Console. 1:C:\WINNT Which windows installation would you like to log on to/ WHat do I do from here?
WARNING/DISCLAIMER: I will try to help as best as I possibly can however anything I say or imply, directly, indirectly or consequentially which may be incorrect in any way, is not my fault. *Damn legalities* I dont think you will lose any data however I cant be sure because I never have had the startup unsucessful or had to use the recovery console. Odds are your recovery console actions will just overright all the OS files that came with your comp and it shouldnt touch anything else. (Of course I dont know about non-systemcritical folders like My Documents). As for the windows installtion to logon to, there should only be one heehee. Just click enter or whatever the next button is
Doofy, I got that far and it asked for Admin password, which for some reason is set. Pressing enter tells me invalid password. Where do I get this password? Microsoft Tech Help took me that far and then they said to take it to a hardware shop and have my system backed up before doing a re install.
The password for the administrator account is the one that needs to be set during the initial installation. You can try the common ones: public, admin, etc and it might work. If it was a friend who did the install for you, ask him/her otherwise you will most likely have to do a reinstall (without formatting) to fix stuff.
To be honest i do not use the recovery console what i usually do is this, Boot off windows xp disc, when it says to setup windows xp now press enter, press enter then f8 and it should give you the option to repair windows xp, this will overwrite the windows files only and should not touch anything else. it is the same as puting win 98 over win98 to repair it
oops it should say to repair windows xp press r just follow the on screen stuff and it should be a ok but please feel free to check this with other people before you do it although i have done it on more than one occasion, some times i really hate windows xp
Thanks for all the info, I'm still trying to get the password. I am on hold with Gateway, maybe they can help. They have been no help to me and I dont recommend or will I ever purchase another. I think the customer service they have is poor.
Well, I guess I have to go somewhere and have my system backed up then have the OS restored or repaired. Can you tell I'm not all that familliar with this pc talk? Thanks for helping me out. I can keep you posted if you like. Can anyone recommend a good place in Metro Detroit?
if you have a windows xp cd just reinstall the xp over your exisiting windows it will repair the files for you
