Emergency Help Needed!

Hey all .. have a pc problem I seriously need help solving!

I offered to help a friend, as his pc (running windows xp) was having loads of problems so in the end I decided to re-install windows. Well, due to the problems I was unable to install so my only option was to restart in safe mode, and I did this by going to start>run and typing msconfig and under the boot.ini tab I chose /safeboot and proceeded to restart.

Surely enough the xp installtion then begun... and after restarting .. the problem struct .. I get to start windows and am then told that windows setup is unable to run in safe mode so then restarted and even when choosing safe mode from the start up menu ... It still loads safe mode and im unable to 'start windows normally'

Anyone able to suggest what I can do as Im really stuck on this :(

I need to change the boot.ini setting to untick the /safeboot box as it seems this is different then simply choosing safe mode from the f8 menu at start.

Really do need help so please reply and help out! :(

why not format c: ?

Im just checking with him if there is anything he needs on it, otherwise I'll go ahead .. was just hoping theres an easier way around it ....

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

At the bottom for boot.ini

Sounds heavy- you looped yourself
cant help though
if you do format - you seriously can get alot of stuff back(if havent done too much even after a format)
with EasyRecovery(use the demo it full14days) need partition though or external hardrive \zip to transfer lost items

I would like to know how you fixed it

Quote:

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Originally posted by cwctv@4 March 2004 - 17:21
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

At the bottom for boot.ini

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Quote:

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Possible Fix by reconfiguring boot.ini using Recovery Console.

1.Boot with XP CD or 6 floppy boot disk set.

2. Press R to load the Recovery Console.

3. Type bootcfg.

4. This should fix any boot.ini errors causing setup not to see the  XP OS
      install.

5. Try the repair install.

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bootcfg has to used with other options passed. That site only says use bootcfg, that is incorrect.

Use bootcfg /list to see which entry has the safe mode identifier and then run bootcfg /rebuild to select the one that does not have the safemode entry.

That may or may not work. More than likely it will. :)

But I still recommend you refer to this

restart it again and after teh bios but just before the windows xp startup screen with the blue or green dots going around in that bar, press F8 repeatedly and you will get a screen that says safe mode, command prompt, vag mode and a few others, one being normal mode. choose normal mode and it should start up.

then when your done copying files you need restart with xp cd and strat installing then use the setup partition manager to format the old partition to install onto it.

if non of the above work (which i doubt)
Start your PC with the 6 XP install disks. Select Repair ® option. Go to the DOS prompt. Type chkdsk /p /r + enter. When check disk is finished, type fixmbr + enter.

Quote:

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fixmbr device name

Use this command to repair the master boot record (MBR) of the boot partition. In the command syntax, device name is an optional device name that specifies the device that needs a new MBR. Use this command if a virus has damaged the MBR and Windows cannot start.

WARNING: This command can damage your partition tables if a virus is present or a hardware problem exists.Using this command can result in inaccessible partitions.

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Quote:

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Microsoft recommends that you run antivirus software before you use this command. :blink: :frusty:

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Thanks for all the suggestions, I really do appreciate it, just a shame I didn't get to read them till afterwards I had already started formatting. There was nothing my friend wanted to keep, so I set off doing it, to be cautious of the problem not still being there after a 'quick' format .. I went for the normal format (from the xp install menu) which took over 1 hour and 30mins for the 150gb drive .. so it took extreme boredom to get through it.

Thank fully though, after doing so ... and installing xp, everything now works perfect, except for the graphics which is very slow as I cant find drivers for it (reason being its an onboard vga and I have no idea what it is, lol) .. but he'll get a agp card later this week so its worked well all in all.

Thanks again

tyrshady I find with win xp use a win98 boot disk and FDISK first will speed up the install.Then boot from xp cd disk. Try this program to find your onboard drivers.

http://www.zhangduo.com/udi.html