Xp unable to boot from Hard Drive?

Question

As of a couple of days ago, my hard drive has been unable to boot XP from the hard drive. I will start up the computer, the Windows XP loading screen will come on for a few seconds, but then it kicks me back to a screen that allows me to choose if I want to run XP in a couple of different Safe Modes, my Last Known Configurations, and Normal mode. No matter which one I choose, it will go to the XP loading screen for a few seconds and then kick me right back to the same screen. My dad says it could be a virus, and I've had a friend who had this same problem, and he had to reformat his entire hard drive. I don't want to reformat my hard drive because there is valuable personal information on there that I need. Is this fixable, or do I need to somehow try and get that information off the hard drive? Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

I fixed this same type of problem just by re-installing XP. Loaded it right over the exisiting directories, and all of the programs still worked, nothing was lost.

Then immediately do a virus scan. If you don't already have one, or it isn't older than say three months since the last update, visit www.mcafee.com. On the Home User page, down at the bottom they list free services. One of the is a virus scanner. It'll point them out, and you have to delete them.

Answer 2

For one a hard drive can fail so you should backup your data anyway.

Next time you see the menu choose Safe Mode. If the computer Starts than your issue is with a driver or some other piece of software that is loading at Startup.

If you get into Safe Mode. Try running msconfig to see what is running at Startup.

Answer 3

I agree with reinstalling XP as the first step.