Page 1 of Laptop keeps re-booting,not loading windows.

I need help.My daughters laptop keeps re-booting and won`t load windows.It does all the checkes and starts loading windows XPand then I get the Safemode screen and when I press enter it then beeps and restarts the cycle again.i`ve tried all the safe mode options,but no luck.I also tried booting it from the XP cd and the drivers and the rest load fine.When it gets to the setup screen,It says `Examining startup environment` and then just hangs for ages.I have tried both the Repair option and the Install option,but no luck there.I suspect a bad HD,but before I go and buy one,any help/suggestions would be appreciated.(No floppy drive on laptop,so can`t go that way)
Thanks.

Download Ubuntu and see if that will work, you don`t have to install it as the operating system.

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www.soundalikes.com

i`ve just had the exact same problem with a laptop at work and the hard drive was completely knacked.

booting up with an alternate os as suggested above is a good idea. at least then you can see if you can view the hard drive and maybe even copy essential stuff to cd or usb drive.

This item was edited on Friday, 5th January 2007, 12:21

how about downloading that ultimate boot cd and use it to run a check on the harddrive

Thanks xfg,Burned Ubuntu on a cd,installed it and use it to format the drive.I am now re-installing XP on the HD,showing 18.2 gb free on a 20gb HD.Is is allright to leave Ubuntu in a partition or should I delete it.
Thanks for a brilliant idea.

Hopefully that`s sorted it, I don`t think it`ll do any harm at all leaving Ubuntu on - did you try it out at all?

--
www.soundalikes.com

Seen this usually as result of bad blocks on the drive.

The trick is to use Ghost* to do a Raw Image (type x:\Ghost -IR where x is the boot media location of Ghost) of the knackered drive to another of the same size (or greater).

If it locates bad blocks & stops the imaging, tell it to continue & ignore further errors.

On completion fit the cloned drive in place of the original, if all is well then as it boots it will do a scandisc & recover file fragments, before rebooting again.

Hopefully if its done all that it will now boot normally.

*Ahem boot disc ;)



I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you've noticed.) You don't normally associate cynicism with an upbeat pov. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.

Todays goal is to exceed yesterdays record level of totally unverifable productivity.

I don`t understand why people knock ASBO`s, they are good things as for most of the recipients, these are the only qualifications they will ever have.

Thanks Guys.I managed to re-install,but had to lose 10gb as I got a message saying drive damaged.Will see how long it lasts before crashing.
Cheers.