Winxp SP Will not boot at all

Hi,
I'm trying to help a friend with the following problem:After turning on the pc
He found that it would not boot up in any mode. All we get is dos screen ,with a c: prompt.Tried to access Safe mode w/F8 but nothing hapens,just can not get back in to desk top.My friend doesn't have the win cd,but only a recovery disk,not sure how to use it,and also afraid that if he runs it he may loose saved data.Any help would be appreciated.thanks Pat

 

Have never read a problem where XP booted to the C: prompt.

Have your friend make sure there is no floppy or CD in drives.
Ask your friend during boot if it asks for a password and if he has to press any number key ? If yes , would seem the comp is booting into the recovery console.

 

Sorry,
The prompt appears after hitting F8,otherwise the pc starts up normally ,but never gets to desktop,no option for "Normal startup,safe mode,Restore etc "
If he should decide to run recovery disk,will he loose any data? He's a College student with much of his papers stored in pc.Thank you.

 

Hello pat,

See if System Restore can be accessed using the command prompt: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304449&sd=tech

If no backups made - the papers will be lost. The Recovery will take the system back to a "as delivered" state.

To recover data, one possibility would be to slave the drive to another computer where it will be a data drive.

This could be done either by using a USB hard drive case or a cable for the purpose and connecting via USB or slaving the HD internally in another computer.

Regards - Charles

 

Most recovery cd's will format the hdd first off , so all data would be lost, would need to read the how to use from manufacture of cd to be sure.

Find out if he added or removed any software or hardware before problem.
See if he ran any new program that might of caused problem.

Wait for others to post as my knowledge of XP is limited.

It would likely be advisable if friend knows how is put the hdd into a different comp and save needed papers/data in case the worst happens.


edit: Hi charlesvar, you posted as I slowly typed.

 

If it's a Dell and the disk he has is labeled "Operating System," it will let him do everything a regular XP disk can do, including a repair install.

If it's a Compaq or HP, it should have a recovery partition on the hard drive. If so, there will be a screen fairly early in the boot process indicating a key to press to "Recover Windows" or "Repair" or something similar. That partition will let him do the same things an XP disc will.

 

Hi Miz,

Dell hasn't shipped an OS disc at least for the last 2 years, and probably longer. They will provide an OS disc the last time I checked if:
a.) you're aware of the option (default is the factory image) and
b.) you're willing to pay for it.

My experience of HP is limited to the recent laptop I purchased from them. Reading the "manual ":

The Recovery discs contain the ' "as delevered" state of the HD: OS + all the HP installed software and are provided for a fee. Otherwise the user is instructed to create their own recovery discs first thing after the initial startup.

Needless to say, I've dispensed with the Recovery Partition and the HP software.

Attachment below are the recovery instructions such as they are:

 

I've purchased four Dells in the last eight years (one Win98, one XP Home, one XP Pro and one Vista Home Premium). All have arrived with a disk labeled Operating System and all those disks have been XP installation disks with Dell's "stuff" thrown in.

I set up two new Dells a couple of months ago. Both were low-end systems with XP Home, both arrived with operating system disks.

I know there was a time when Dell would only ship the disks if you checked that option when building one online. I've never ordered one on the phone so I don't know if they offer that option with phone orders. Apparently, that disk-less option was short lived.

I've worked on several newer Compaqs and one new HP. Neither arrived with disks but both provided software to make the disks (which even actually makes the disks once in a while) and a recovery partition. The recovery partition on the ones I've messed with offer to do a repair install and a reformat/reinstall. I can't remember if they offer the Recovery Console.