Member Avatar for Joe90

Computer turns on fine

Windows XP loads and does its thing

Desktop comes up and not all of the icons display correctly: My Docs, My Computer, Outlook and IE don't show as they should

If I try to open any one of them, the cursor changes to show that its working then after about 5 seconds it goes back to normal. Nothing will open.

I have tried to open the control panel, it did eventually after about 6 minutes.

So after HOURS of messing around, trying this that and the other, I decided to cut my losses and re-install Windows XP - easy you would think WRONG!

Tried to install it, it won't run, so I decided to uninstall it first and then try again, so went to control panel (waited 6 mins) uninstalled it, rebooted............its still there!

Basically I want to know whether to give up and go and buy a new hardrive or whether this is worth persevering with?

There are only so many hours in a day before I lose the plot and throw the computer out the door...lol

Any advice would be gladly accepted
Joe

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by hollystyles

Dani AI

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This thread shows the classic triage order for flaky XP behavior: rescue data first, then isolate hardware vs. software, then repair or replace. reported programs and system items that won’t open and an installer that “won’t run” — before any reinstall or deep repair, copy your important files (Documents, desktop, Outlook PSTs) to another drive. If Windows is unstable, either boot a Linux Live CD/USB or pull the drive and attach it to a working machine to copy files.

After files are safe, check hardware health. Boot from the Windows XP CD Recovery Console and run:

chkdsk c: /r

Also run a manufacturer HDD diagnostic (SeaTools, WD Data Lifeguard, etc.) from bootable media and view SMART status in BIOS or a rescue environment. Run Memtest86+ from a bootable USB to rule out RAM corruption (one full pass at minimum).

If hardware looks good, try targeted Windows repairs that won’t destroy data. Use sfc /scannow from an elevated prompt with the XP CD available, and consider an in-place repair install from the XP CD (the Repair option) if the installer refuses when launched from inside Windows. Create a fresh local user account to test whether the problem is a corrupted profile. Inspect Event Viewer (System and Application logs) for disk I/O errors or Explorer/app crash events — common useful Event IDs include 7, 51, 55 and 1000.

If diagnostics show bad sectors or SMART failures, replace the drive and restore from your backup; cloning tools (Clonezilla, manufacturer utilities) can sometimes rescue data from a failing disk. If everything hardware-wise checks out but problems persist after repair, a clean install is the safest route. As indicated, an in-place repair can preserve settings — but only after data has been backed up and the disk verified.

Member Avatar for hollystyles

Tried to install it, it won't run

What specifically is the error ? we can't help without specifics, note it down word for word and post it here.

so went to control panel (waited 6 mins) uninstalled it, rebooted

You can't uninstall Windows from the control panel, you need to re-format the drive. But I would try a re-install over the top first because your personal data and settings will be preserved.

I think your best bet is first to boot into safe mode, (after BIOS screen press F8 repeatedly and you get a menu choose safe mode)

Run a full scan with your anti-virus program and anti spyware program

Then run Disk Defregmenter

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