Restore went wrong !

Hi:

I finally had to resort to system restor to an earlier dare where the system worked goog.

We did a restore and all indicators seemed ok. The restore completed.

Now, something must have gone wrong.

We boot up, Windows XP Pro starts to load and then the
computer closes and automatically reboots. This starting closeing and rebooting is now a constant loop.

Any suggestions how we can perform a normal bootup ?

 

System Restore Wrong

I assume that you are using a diffirent computer to post your problem.
Go into safe mode. ( on startup of windows start tapping either the F5 key or F8 key. ) Go into safe mode.
If you go into system restore you should be able to undo the last system restore that you did.
Could be a driver conflict ?
You can try restoring to other dates to see if you get the same result of rebooting.

 

Please describe what you did to restore the OS. Also, please let us know what make and model of computer it was, and did you use the restore function on the computer or the restore disks that came with it.

 

Restore went wrong - will not go into safe mode !

Thanks:

I guess you can say we are using another computer. We just jerked out the hard drive "C" and put in a new hard drive "C ". So, bacisally we do in effect have a new computer !

The old hard drive is an 80 gig drive with lots of data files.
When we make it a slave drive these data files can be accessed.
However, any installed programs had to be installed on the new hard drive "C ".

Swiched back and made the bad drive the master. Then we used F8 to reach boot choices. Tried all the safe mode choices and each time the result was a streaming screen of data. No safe mode !

So, is there another method to try and restore it to a bootable drive ?

 

Restoreing OS - not really !

Hi:

We had a problem. Our system went into a boot loop - never fully activating the OS (Windows XP Pro).

The Last "NAME BRAND" computer we ever purchased was an Apple IIe and an Apple GS.
When Apple stopped supporting those and brought out the Mac we ditched them. Wanted color - Mac did not have color.

We began assembling our own computers. The so called "IBM compatabiles ".
You probably don't remember Commodore and Franklin computers, and the real dog of all dogs the IBM Personel Computer !

And we upgraded often - Today my main computer is a "MY OWN" brand.
Computer parts supply stores are plentyful in the Atlanta, GA. area.

We start with a mid tower case with a 300 watt power supply.
We buy a good Mother Board with sound, Lan and UBS ports built in.

We install an Intel P-IV 3.0 gh processor.

Install A CD player/burner - A DVD player/ burner - Extra USB ports - A TV
Player/recorder - A 3.25 floppy drive - A 5.5 Floppy drive (Yep, they are still available and work too !).

Never use speakers - always headphones.

Internet service is Bellsouth.net Ultra Fast DSL.

The OS is Windows XP Pro.

**********************************************
Now over the years we have collected a pile of Hard Drives.
Discarded any thing less than 20 gig (we still have one good one).
Have several 40 gig hard drives (later models - junked all the older
slow ones). Have currently installed two 80 Gig hard drives.
Any thing above 80 Gig is asking too mush to be lost if something goes wrong.

So, we devoted some time to wipe all those drives clean. Reformatted them.
And installed the OS on each. Hey Microsoft checkes the computer to verify ligit Windows on one machine. It is the Motherboard that gives them this data - not the hard drive. (If the mother Board goes bad we will have to buy Windows again.) We have a half dozen drives with the OS plus several programs installed ready to replace the Drive C if anything goes bad.
And it does quite often as we explore just a tad too much for the "Average Home Computer User ".

Therefore, when the OS went into a boot loop: We just made that drive a slave drive, slapped in a new Drive C as the master - and with just a few program reinstalles were back up and running.

Now to get that bad hard drive up and booting again. If we cannot, we will
just copy all "data" files to another drive, wipe that one clean and reformat it.

***************************************************

Sorry we took so long - but you asked. Now as to Name Brand computers Compaq, Dell, HP etc. They have one thing in common that I just don't like.

Each manfacturer has his own machine - none of the parts are interchangeable ! You can only replace a Dell Power Supply with a Dell
product - order it from them or go to a Dell service center (and Pay).

Same is true of cars - ever try to use a wheel made for a Plymouth on a Ford ? Same size, yes - but one has 5 lug nut holes and the other has six lug nut holes. So much for American "Standards ".

Hey - nothing wrong with the Name Brand computers - it is just me.
I buy the parts and make my own.

This computer has all of and more bells and whsitles one needs and the price is around $400.00.

Note: The most useless component of a computer is the "Cover" that is held on by 6 to 8 screws. Me, I remove the case covers and discard them.
Now I can get my hands into the machine and trade out drives and boards and memory chips easily.

That's about all on geting the OS working again around here !

 

The motherboard is one of the factors in the activation process, but not the only one (hard drives do count, BTW). Also, if you switch out the mobo, you won't have to buy a new copy of XP - but you may have to call MS to get it activated.

So, the issue here is that you can't boot from the old hard drive with the OS installed on it. And the reason that you want to do this is to recovery the data. Am I correct?

If so, it may be easiest to slave the drive and retrieve the data that way. You can try repairing the installation and getting it to boot - but that'll take time and you'll still have to recover the data.

If possible, retrieve the data to a FAT32 partition/device. This'll eliminate some of the Access Denied problems. But, if you do get Access Denied errors, those are generally simple enough to get around.

 

Close out - restore went wrong posting.

Hi:

Thanks folks.

What we finally did was copy and paste all data folders to DVDs.

Total was almost 4 DVD disks and yes, this took a little time - but nights are long here and while we waited for data transfer to be processed we just booted up another computer with the Windows ME operating system.
Still keep that one active because Windows XP dropped support of the older
systems (Windows 98, Windows 3.1 and the DOS.) A lot of those
old (but good) programs will not run on XP. Some developers updated to work with XP - but only a few.

Anyhow we got all our data back - even if we had not, we had backup
CDs and DVDs that were not too old and only required a little manual updating.

Which means, if you monkey with your computer too much Murphy's Law
will soon show up ! So, backup to media other than hard drives. Just data. programs can be reinstalled.

Back to normal this morning and in fact a lot of the data we just left on DVD and did not put back on the hard drive. A bit slower but it can be accessed
from the DVD if we need it again.

Thanks