Major XP problem. Not loading after initial booting up.

IF u dont have any luck with what ppl are suggesting and u dont want to reformat then i would but another H.drive and install windows on that and then use the old drive as storage.

least it will show up in my computer and u can get to it to get stuff off it.

for future proofin tho have a storage drive and get a hold of Acronis True image

make a complee iamge of ure drive and store it on a storage drive.

anything ever goes wrong with ure pc in the future u wont care as u just load the image and u have a full working exact pc again,just create an image every month or so.

its a life saver.

If its stopping at 'xp is checking hardware' then its a hardware problem. This sounds like a ram problem. If theres more than 1 stick of ram take them out one at a time and boot with the other, and see which is faulty, if you only have one stick try running a program from disk like memtest

First things first. Reboot, and tap the F8 key as the computer boots. This will give you a screen with the option to ‘Disable automatic restart on system failure’. This will prevent the automatic restart and you may be able to post further information.

Are you sure it reboots even when you start from the CD?

To start from the CD you have to enter BIOS (press the delete key when switching on) and change the boot sequence so it boots from CD before harddisk).

If it crashes even when you start from the CD, you have a hardware problem because it shouldn't even go near the disk.

Assuming you can get it to boot from CD, try to do a recovery once the CD has finsihed booting.

I would say your MBR (master boot record is messed up) fix that and you should be good to go.

I did have this problem on mine and i took out my internal hard drive and put it in my spare pc and i transferred all my data (that i wanted to keep) on it, then i took it back out again and put it back into the original pc and formatted.

I would say formatting is the best cure, leave repairing to last i reckon.

Hope this info helps you in your quest.

Good luck!

You can do a repair install .Boot off the XP CD, you should not lose your data, see the link below

ifwas you i would get a great bit of kit (got myn from maplins) that allows you to plug your hard drive into another comp through usb port.scan for virus, if no luck access the files you want to keep and copy them. then reformat and reload xp.

just sounds like your windows is corrupted reinstall windows you dont have to lose anything youve got on your pc ,just follow instructiong on your xp disc if youve got one

reinstall - there a major file missing