Computer won't go past Windows loading screen

[agathodaimon]

Well,
it's not my computer, but my sister's. So who knows.

But anyways, I guess they had their computer on the other day when the circuit breaker blew and of course, the computer was shut off.
Since then, the computer won't boot past the Windows loading phase during startup.
It shows the progress bar, and then it acts like it's going to load, then the screen just goes blank. That's it. No HDD activity or anything, but yet it stays on.

I've tried running MEMTest86 on the RAM, a Western Digital HDD check on the Hard drive and neither came up with errors.
I unplugged the slave HDD to see if that might be causing problems, but nope...
This thing won't even boot into SAFE MODE at all.
I checked the temps in the BIOS, and all were fine.

The specs are:
Windows XP Home
Processor - AMD XP1700 (Tbred)
Motherboard - MSI KM2M Combo-L
HDD - Western Digital 80GB IDE 7200
Video Card - ATI Radeon 7200 64mb
Power Supply - Allied 300w
RAM - 512MB Crucial PC2100



I'm going to back up some files to MY computer if I can read the HD. I have an external USB enclosure that I will be using.
I want to try and repair the Windows installation. But if that doesn't work, I may have to format... But I don't even know if that is the problem.

[Front242]

You may want to try a repair install. I don't think a "last known" will work on this issue.

[John Prophet]

what about safe mode and then if that works use system restore to back it up a few days....oh, nevermind, lol


boot to xp cd

first screen hit "enter" (dont hit the (R) on the first screen)

second screen hit f8

third screen hit (R) for repair install

[agathodaimon]

Yeah, the "boot to last know configuration" did NOT work...

Hopefully the repair will fix it... One question though, is it a good idea to do a repair without backing up files? I know it's going to take a while to back them all up, but if I need to, that's what I gotta do.
Just asking to save some time...

[Front242]

^lol! doncha hate it when you do that

[John Prophet]

how are you going to back them up??

I guess it depends on how important the files are

the repair will overwrite the favorites folder and also outlook express emails etc....so you might want to back those up



another method is to pu tthe drive in another machine and copy the files you want to save

or install XP on a second drive and then bring the info over etc

lots of ways to do it


but usually you dont lose data when doing the repair....and even if the repair doesnt work you should still be able to put the drive in another machine to get the files etc

[Front242]

What he said.

[agathodaimon]

I'm going to try putting the HD in an external USB enclosure and copy the files over to my working computer.

[agathodaimon]

well, nothing worked. I was at it for a while last night.

I just ended up backing up important files & reinstalling windows. It works fine now!
Something must have just got corrupted and couldn't be fixed.