Boot up problems

  • Thread starter Thread starter John
  • Start date Start date
J

John

I swapped my perfectly working 80GB hard drive into a
different computer. I was running Roxio's Go Back program
at bootup. When I tried booting up it would go to the Go
Back screen, then automatically rebooted. It would
continue to do this until I would shut down the PC. I
tried going to a restore point, but it would still
continue to reboot. Finally, I turned off Go Back, and all
that got me was a flashing cursor instead of the reboot.
I tried putting the hard drive back in the old PC but it
would still do it. I've tried repairing windows using the
WindowsXP installation disk and finally tried to reinstall
Windows XP all together. What would happen is that
WIndows XP installation disk would copy all the files and
reboot, but then it would still go to the flashing cursor.
I also had another hard drive that I could boot up.
Putting the 80-GB hard drive as a slave, I could see all
the files. I chkdisked the drive, and everything was fine.
I moved the important files to the other drive except for
My Documents. It would not let me since I had a password
on that profile.
Does anyone know why I can't boot up? If I'm hosed, and
have to reformat the drive, does anyone know how to get My
Documents off a drive that has a password on the profile?
Thanks!
 
I know for a fact that GoBack modifies the Master Boot Record (MBR). You
might have to correct the MBR for it to work. Just a hunch.

HTH
 
Can you uninstall GoBack? That is your problem as it writes it's own
bootrecord which is now hosed and is also preventing you from reinstalling
XP. I don't use GoBack much but I think you have to press the "Spacebar"
when the computer is starting to get into the GoBack menu where you can
uninstall it. You might be able to boot to Windows or do a Repair Install
once GoBack is uninstalled.

You will have to do more than just reformat if you have GoBack on the drive
and it hasn't been uninstalled. You will need to remove all partitions,
create a new partition and then format.

If you have a CD-Rom drive and a separate CD Burner on your system you can
likely use Knoppix to recover your My Documents directory files. Knoppix is
a Linux based os that runs entirely off a CD. It is a huge .ISO download of
700 MB. You must burn the ISO image file to CD using an app like Nero's Burn
Image option. Once the Knoppix disk is created boot the troubled system with
the Knoppix CD in the plain CD-Rom drive. You will boot to the Knoppix
Desktop which isn't hard to navigate. You can then use it's burning software
to copy files off your hard drive to CD.

Info on Knoppix here http://www.knoppix.net/docs/ and it can be downloaded
from
ftp://raven.cslab.vt.edu/pub/linux/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V3.3-2004-02-16-EN.iso

a fully functional demo of Nero can be had from here www.nero.com if needed
to burn the image file
 
Thanks Raoul. I've used the repair console on Windows XP
and ran the "fixboot" command. Is it as simple as
using "Fixmbr" command instead? I hope so and I'll try it
this evening when I get home. Thanks a bunch!
 
Thanks Harry. I did uninstall GoBack. That's when it would
just go to a black screen, rather than rebooting
continually. If I can't get it going by repairing the MBR,
I'll Knoppix to get my files.
-----Original Message-----
Can you uninstall GoBack? That is your problem as it writes it's own
bootrecord which is now hosed and is also preventing you from reinstalling
XP. I don't use GoBack much but I think you have to press the "Spacebar"
when the computer is starting to get into the GoBack menu where you can
uninstall it. You might be able to boot to Windows or do a Repair Install
once GoBack is uninstalled.

You will have to do more than just reformat if you have GoBack on the drive
and it hasn't been uninstalled. You will need to remove all partitions,
create a new partition and then format.

If you have a CD-Rom drive and a separate CD Burner on your system you can
likely use Knoppix to recover your My Documents directory files. Knoppix is
a Linux based os that runs entirely off a CD. It is a huge .ISO download of
700 MB. You must burn the ISO image file to CD using an app like Nero's Burn
Image option. Once the Knoppix disk is created boot the troubled system with
the Knoppix CD in the plain CD-Rom drive. You will boot to the Knoppix
Desktop which isn't hard to navigate. You can then use it's burning software
to copy files off your hard drive to CD.

Info on Knoppix here http://www.knoppix.net/docs/ and it can be downloaded
from
ftp://raven.cslab.vt.edu/pub/linux/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V3.3- 2004-02-16-EN.iso

a fully functional demo of Nero can be had from here
Click to expand...
www.nero.com if needed
to burn the image file

--

Harry Ohrn - MS MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


I swapped my perfectly working 80GB hard drive into a
different computer. I was running Roxio's Go Back program
at bootup. When I tried booting up it would go to the Go
Back screen, then automatically rebooted. It would
continue to do this until I would shut down the PC. I
tried going to a restore point, but it would still
continue to reboot. Finally, I turned off Go Back, and all
that got me was a flashing cursor instead of the reboot.
I tried putting the hard drive back in the old PC but it
would still do it. I've tried repairing windows using the
WindowsXP installation disk and finally tried to reinstall
Windows XP all together. What would happen is that
WIndows XP installation disk would copy all the files and
reboot, but then it would still go to the flashing cursor.
I also had another hard drive that I could boot up.
Putting the 80-GB hard drive as a slave, I could see all
the files. I chkdisked the drive, and everything was fine.
I moved the important files to the other drive except for
My Documents. It would not let me since I had a password
on that profile.
Does anyone know why I can't boot up? If I'm hosed, and
have to reformat the drive, does anyone know how to get My
Documents off a drive that has a password on the profile?
Thanks!
Click to expand...


.
Click to expand...
 
Back
Top