XP won't start up after installing updates

  • Thread starter Thread starter Carla
  • Start date Start date
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Carla

I wasn't able to write to my CDW drive, and went to the
website and installed several updates for XP, now the
computer will not start up. I have a black screen and it
does thru a few lines but is hung up at the Detecting
Primary--etc. I don't want to loose everything that I
have on there. Is there a fix to this? I tried the F8
key and that didn't do anything. The F1 key pressed at
start up does show all the system info. The computer
didn't come with any CD recovery disk. So I'm in a bind.
Thanks for any help.
 
When you boot, you need to start tapping F8, keep tapping it, it should
ultimately bring you to a menu. If you get to the menu, first try "Last
Known Good Configuration." If that doesn't resolve it, reboot, start
tapping F8, when the menu appears, select Safe Mode. At Safe Mode, you
should be offered the option of going to System Restore, if not, in Safe
Mode, go to Start\All Programs\Accessories\System Tools\System Restore and
try restoring your computer to a date before this started.

If you are able to do that, the problem with your CD-RW drive likely has
nothing to do with updates. If you were trying to drag and drop files to
disk or you were trying to save directly to disk, this function is not
supported by XP's integrated burning function. This requires third party
software such as the Direct CD or Drag to Disk components of Easy CD
Creator, www.roxio.com or the InCD component of Nero, www.nero.com, please
see the specified sites for versions compatible with XP and drive
compatibility.

If the above won't get you going, without an actual XP CD there's nothing
more we can do for you, though if you purchase such a CD we MIGHT and I
stress MIGHT be able to get you out of this mess but at least you would have
the disk for future use as well and not find yourself in this kind of spot
with such limited options in the future. If this is not something you wish
to do, you need to find out what recovery routine your system builder
included with your setup, they are required to do so, whether it's a
recovery partition or recovery CD. Such an option will likely wipe your
drive and you will lose everything unless you are backed up but these are
your options.
 
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