[HarryO61]

Please help! I have an HP A420N desktop puter and as soon as I try to start it I get a black screen with (error loading OS) and that is all. I have tried starting using F8,F10 & F12 but cannot get it to do anything. Originally it had Win XP as the OS had to instal Win XP Pro aprox 1-1/2 years ago from a friend. It worked fine till aprox. a month 1/2 ago and all of a sudden it came up with the black screen. Is there anything available from somewhere other than HP as they claim it isn't avail. thru them? I cannot afford to buy a new OS or new tower so if I can't find something i'm without a system. For now I am borrowing a laptop from my daughter but it is only temporarily. Thanks in advance for any and all help.

Harry
PS, if of any use please contact me via e-mail or post a reply here?

 

[spunk.funk]

I removed your personal Email address to avoid you getting spam. People can Personal Message you here anonymously.
Boot off of the XP CD or restore disc and get to the Recovery Console here type chkdsk /R and press enter. the Check Disk utility will try and fix any file errors.

 

[HarryO61]

Hey Spunk.Funk. thanks for the e-mail and possible fix but I do not have a recovery disc or any way that I can find where to get one. I have gone to HP website and they informed me that they are not available. Is there anywhere or anyone that I can get either a proggy to download to a blank disc as I need to have something I can put into a drive to get to the command prompts? I have tried to press F5,F*,F!) & F12 but cannot get it to go anywhere to get help with this. When I turn on my computer all I get is the black screen with (error loading OS) in the upper left corner.
I do have a laptop available to use to surf the web etc. and I believe it has Win XP SP3 is there anyway to download this to a blank disc. to reinstall it into my HP A420N puter??
Thank You in advance for any info,
Harry:4-dontkno

 

[spunk.funk]

Download the UBCD4Win. This will install a program on the computer you download it, when you run it, it will ask you what you want to add to it (like an XP CD files) you can point it to the computers Windows Files or leave it blank and then finish the wizard and burn the Image it creates. On the troubled computer, boot with the newly created CD. A mini XP will show up and get to the Command Prompt. Here type chkdsk C: /R and press enter. After it is done, try to boot normally.