PC - problem on startup

Tickdick00

Hi

Having problems starting my PC - gets as far as "there was an error starting Windows - do you want to start in Safe Mode, last known good, start normally etc etc"

Whichever you select the PC boots as far as "boot from CD" then goes back to "there was an error....." over and over again.

Any ideas on the problem please?

Thanks for your help!

Tickdick00

Any help would be greatly appreciated - thank you!

R0CKY

You need to boot to the BIOS before it gets to that screen, usually by bashing the Del or F2 key just after you power the PC on.

Once in there look for the boot options and check to see if it is set to boot from your Hard drive. It sounds like it is only checking the CD drive for a boot, but my gut feeling is that your hardrive has issues. Did you have a system crash or strange shut down prior to this issue?

aliEnRIK

I agree with Rocky
Sounds terminal that im afraid.

vyseyboy

I would try and go to the BIOS settings (usually by pressing ESC, DEL, F1, F2 or another key as the computer starts up - often it'll say "press x to enter setup" - just press whatever it says.)

Once there, check your boot order preferences. The fact that it's presenting you with "there was an error starting windows..." suggests to me that it's booting from the hard drive but the system files are somewhat corrupt. I don't think it's fatal.

So once into the BIOS settings, navigate around and change your boot order so that CD drive comes before hard drive, get the windows CD (assuming you have one! - you can also borrow one of the same type as your windows e.g. XP home, vista basic etc.. has to be the same type though.)

Put the CD in the drive, switch the machine on, and press whatever key you need to press to enter the recovery console ("R" i think) when prompted (usually the prompt appears at the bottom of the screen--- i think....

once there it'll ask you to select an installation if there's several, but just choose the first option if there's only one (i.e. press "1" for C:/windows and hit enter)

then type the command : chkdsk /r

and hit enter.

Checks all system files and replaces bad ones. Takes ages. Leave it until it's finished, restart the computer (take disc out drive and also change back boot order in Bios if you want.) And you should be all good.

This is my solution to everything! Maybe you should do full anti-virus and spyware scans if you get it working again.