[MarkB123]

Had a bit of a problem with our old computer. It booted up into the light blue Windows xp screen, with the logo but no text - it would just sit there and the mouse would work but nothing else would. I did a bit of reading and decided that some necessary system files might be corrupt.

I put in the XP disc (the original one that came with the PC, set the BIOS to prioritise booting from the CD and booted from the CD. I was following this guide (Press F6 to Install a Third Party Driver (Step 3 of 19)) and it all went fine until step 8. Once it had finished doing all that, it didn't progress to the screen in step 9, it just reboots then bootloops (trying to boot from the CD still, I think). I restarted, told the BIOS to boot from the HD but the same happened (bootlooping). Once, it gave me a blue screen error (0x0000007f (0x0000000d, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000), but it didn't happen again.

If I try to start in safe mode, it says "windows xp setup cannot run under safemode".

 

[shawnpb]

Install 3rd party drivers are mostly for SCSI and RAID drives. Unless you have those types of drives loading 3rd party drivers is unnecessary.

Load the cd again choose "Repair" R.

This will bring you to the Windows XP Recovery Console. Select 1 for WINDOWS. Type in the administrator password if any, if no password is used for the administrator just hit enter.

At the command Prompt type

CHKDSK /R

This will attempt to recover any files from bad sectors.

 

[MarkB123]

Install 3rd party drivers are mostly for SCSI and RAID drives. Unless you have those types of drives loading 3rd party drivers is unnecessary.

Load the cd again choose "Repair" R.

This will bring you to the Windows XP Recovery Console. Select 1 for WINDOWS. Type in the administrator password if any, if no password is used for the administrator just hit enter.

At the command Prompt type

CHKDSK /R

This will attempt to recover any files from bad sectors.

I didn't press F6 to load the drivers, I just linked to that step accidently - I skipped that part.

Will this method you said hopefully fix the installation without wiping data?

Also, I'm wondering why the method outlined in that link didn't work. Any ideas on why it didn't progress to this screen but instead started boot looping after this finished? Was I right to set the CD drive priority, or can you boot from a disk manually - and if so, should I set it back and try again the original way or go ahead with the recovery console?

 

[spunk.funk]

You started a Windows install, and now you are caught in the Windows Setup loop. As Jack said; Boot off of the Windows Disc Boot off of the CD and get to the Recovery Console. Here type chkdsk /R and press enter. The Check Disk utility will try and fix any file errors.
You can also download the ISO image for Drive Fitness Test in my signature and burn the image to a CD using IMGBurn also in my signature and boot off of the newly created CD and run the Quick and Advanced tests on the HDD to test the integrity of the drive.

 

[MarkB123]

I successfully did the chkdsk /R, not sure how long it took as I left it going but at the end it saud that it had fixed one or more problems.

When I restart, however, the machine still boot loops. I get a POST screen, with "Press any key to boot from the CD" and then, if I leave it, the Black XP loading screen, then it repeats. If I do press a key, I can boot into the XP CD.

Now I have repaired the disc, do I need to re-repair my Windows installation like I did before? What can I do differently this time to ensure it works?

 

[spunk.funk]

Boot of of the XP CD and get into the Recovery Console and type FIXBOOT and press enter. Now try to boot normally. If that fails, get back to the RC and type FIXMBR and press enter and try to boot normally. If this all fails, try doing a Repair Install