xp problem

[minni-me]

my laptop crashed today and the only way of turning it off to restart it was by pressing the power button and when i restarted it this screen showed up
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v370/minnimelisa/laptop.jpg[/img]
ive tried starting it up normally and in all the safe modes but it just keeps leading me back to this screen anyone know what is wrong or how i can fix the problam i would really aprreciate it
thanx :)

[fry]

have you tried boot in safe mode, boot from the windows installation cd and choose option repair?

[minni-me]

ive tried that thanx is there anyway i can backup all my files without logging on?

[DaveB]

Hi

Your PC can't find the Operating System, either due to a hardware of software fault. Best to try and fix a software fault first, so...

Have you still got the Windows XP Recovery CD?

If you do, then insert the disk in the CD Drive, shutdown, and turn the machine on;

1.
When the Press any key to boot from CD message is displayed on your screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.
2.
Press ENTER when you see the message To setup Windows XP now, and then press ENTER displayed on the Welcome to Setup screen.
3.
Do not choose the option to press R to use the Recovery Console.
4.
In the Windows XP Licensing Agreement, press F8 to agree to the license agreement.
5.
Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is selected in the box, and then press R to repair Windows XP.
6.
Follow the instructions on the screen to complete Setup.

It is most likely that you wont see any installations, so as long as you have enough free space, you can install a new copy of XP, making sure you don't format the drive, and use this temporarily to remove your data.

Then, best to start a fresh, and follow the same process, press enter to make a new installation, and select a full Format, in NTFS.

If you have problems with No1, you may need to enable boot from disk. To do this, you will need to enter your Bios. This can be achieved by pressing Del or F2, during POST (Power On Self Test - The screens you see when you turn your PC on before the Windows Splash Screen).

This will open a menu. You are looking for Boot Settings, and to enable Boot from CD. The available commands are displayed on the bottom of the screen, and when you find your boot list, you may need to use + or - to move CD above Harddisk in priority.

Resources

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/doug92.mspx

All the best, David

[minni-me]

thanx that helped :) its all working now

[DaveB]

Good to hear. I would certainly advise, that once you have retrieved all your data you make a fresh installation with a format, it will save problems in the long run.

Regards, Dave