Staredit Network

So whenever I try to boot up my computer, it gives me that black screen where it tells you to try the different modes for starting up. I've tried all 5, and none have worked. It seems to work, then my computer just shuts down as soon as everything is done loading. I'm running Xp SP1. Anyone else been throuh this?

By that do you mean DOS? I remember a long time ago I had to type "win" at startup through DOS to make windows work, but I have no idea if that'll work for you...

The 5 modes it gives me is safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with something(i forget), normal start up with last working settings, and normal startup.

Try reinstalling Windows... :\ Does it shut down right at a specific point..?

Yes, right after those green loading bar things finish, the screen turns black for a few seconds then the comp reboots.

I really don't hope it comes down to having to reformat

Woa our computers must be brothers or something but the same thing happend to me 3 weeks ago.

Does your problem go like this?

When you press te start button on your comp and it loads up does it show the windows XP logo and the green bar for a looooong time.

After that it reboots the computer and brings you to this menu saying.

"Sorry windows has come apon an error and has brought you to this screen. Either you have pressed the start button instantly or your computer has a virus.
Please select one of these options or wait for windows to start normally"

Well do this dumbducky. When you get to the black screen with the options keep pressing start windows normally. If it fails after like 6 times then you need to reformatt it. Cause my cousin is a computer engineer and I just gave him my hardrive and he fixed it.

Or does your comp have a virus?

Have you installed any Windows Automatic Updates or anything recently? I remember i once couldn't boot up normally because of them and had to delete the updates in safe mode, and i have them turned of till now, because whenever i install them the computer keeps rebooting over and over until it gives me to choose the safe mode..

But if it reboots even in safe mode for you, then i don't think there's anything you could do.. It could be a virus, but maybe it could also be some hardware causing this i.e. being burned or sth?

Safe mode is not even a possibility. As far as I know, there is nothin wrong with the hardware.

My theory is that some startup file got deleted. Anyway to restore them if so?

Try reinstalling windows without formatting. If you stick in the XP disk, I believe there's even an option to try and fix/restore windows. After either option, I would still run a virus scanner, pull off everything you need, and reformat anyways. Reformatting = godly... and I've reformatted under better situations than the one you have.

Why are you still running SP1 anyways? Warez? Is that why you don't wanna reformat? (If so, I feel ya... I need to find a new .iso or something.)

PS. Maybe I should just laugh at you - I guess I'm not the only one that can't play SC atm

I'm still on SP1 because downloading it off of the internet didn't work for some reason(I dunno why, my dad tried it), and we're awaiting the mail order disc.

I don't want to reformat, but I guess I might have to use it as a last ditch effort.

Time to go find that XP disc.

No... you don't have to reformat as a last effort, but you should... after you have the XP disc fix windows... and take everything off that you need.

How would I be able to get my stuff off the computer? I don't have a LAN cable, if that's how you would do it.

... How do you have two computers then (online?)?
CD Writter?

I've got one online. I have a router, so I can get both of them online at once.

But would I be able to get a LAN connection through the router?

EDIT: Usin sys recovery, i've doing dskchk C: /R
I'm done, post results in a second.

EDIT: it stopped at 50%. It tells me that the volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems. It then lists KB avaible on disk and total space. As well as bytes in each allocation units, ottal allocation units, and allocations units available

As a last-ditch effort to save some of your files, if all else fails, you can take the harddrive out of the computer that won't boot, and hook it up to your other PC, then transfer off any files you wanna save.

Fixed.

Unfixed

It's now got a 20% reliability of booting up and letting you log on. Hopefully, if someone knows how, I'll be able to repair. If not we'llhave to store everything on an external drive and reformat teh computer.

EDIT: Hal.dll is missing. How do I get about to replace it?

Now I can't even get to the System Restore screen.

What should I do?

Why can't you? Have you editted your BIOS so that it boots from CD as the first option?

I don't think so...
All that happens is that it goes to a black screen with text saying hal.dll is missing.

So you can't even boot to Windows on the computer now?
Anyway, to do what I suggested, you need to be able to boot from your Windows XP CD. Your computer is automatically set to boot from harddisk first, so you need to set it so it looks at your CD/DVD to boot first. When your comptuer starts up, it will ask you to press a button like f2, f10, delete.. one of those keys will get you into your BIOS. Once you are in you need to look for boot sequence, or something similar. It's harder to tell you since there are a bunch of different versions of BIOS's..

So I tried what hawk says, and I get this:

I'll go ahead with chkdsk, but I'll probably get teh same results as before.

Yah, same as before. Stopped at 50%, tells me that the volume has one or more unrecoverable problems, and then lists memory numbers.

Also, before when i got it up for awhile, system tools were all missing. So were some files from my antivirus. Does this sound like a virus to you?

I don't really think it was a virus. Honestly, I think you would be best to plug this into your computer you are using now, try and salvage what you need, reformat, and reinstall a new fresh copy of Windows onto it. It seems like it's just going to give you more problems.
If you need help installing the harddrive on your computer, you can ask me for help... and...
If worst comes to worst, and you need a new HDD, I can help you pick out whatever you need..

Will the external HDD not work?

Are you sure about the virus? I think I might have gotten one from downloading this.

lol.

What do you mean will the external HDD not work? I must have missed something, but if you don't really want to run an OS and stuff off of an external HDD, unless it's got an eSATA hookup, but even then, I wouldn't recommend having that as a main drive. They cost more too. You can get a 160 gb IDE HDD for like 50 dollars now. Not sure if you have SATA, or IDE, probably IDE though.