From: Jamie W on
My daughter's computer was recently doing an update. We were at the point
where the computer was rebooting and had the screen "do not turn off your
computer, updating......" etc. Unfortunately, our ISP went out at that
time, and the computer was left in that limbo for over 24 hours. I finally
just hit the power button to turn it off, and now when we turn it on it is
in a continual loop of rebooting itself. I've tried putting in the Windows
disk and it reads it okay, and will get so far to reinstall, but then it
does the same thing and reboots itself.

I don't know what to try at this point. I'd really like to not lose
everything on her hard drive if possible. Any suggestions welcome.

--
"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure
Island, and, best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your
life."
Walt Disney.


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From: John John - MVP on
Jamie W wrote:
> My daughter's computer was recently doing an update. We were at the
> point where the computer was rebooting and had the screen "do not turn
> off your computer, updating......" etc. Unfortunately, our ISP went out
> at that time, and the computer was left in that limbo for over 24
> hours. I finally just hit the power button to turn it off, and now when
> we turn it on it is in a continual loop of rebooting itself. I've tried
> putting in the Windows disk and it reads it okay, and will get so far to
> reinstall, but then it does the same thing and reboots itself.
>
> I don't know what to try at this point. I'd really like to not lose
> everything on her hard drive if possible. Any suggestions welcome.

Tap or the F8 key when the computer is booting up (after the BIOS POST
routine, just before Windows starts to load) and access the Advanced
boot menu and try booting to the Last Known Good Configuration. Also,
at that Advanced Boot Option screen, select the option to "Disable
automatic restart on system failure", this will cause the computer to
halt on a blue screen (if it is blue screening) and you might be able to
get useful information from the bugcheck error message.

John
From: Daave on
Jamie W wrote:
> My daughter's computer was recently doing an update. We were at the
> point where the computer was rebooting and had the screen "do not
> turn off your computer, updating......" etc. Unfortunately, our ISP
> went out at that time, and the computer was left in that limbo for
> over 24 hours. I finally just hit the power button to turn it off,
> and now when we turn it on it is in a continual loop of rebooting
> itself. I've tried putting in the Windows disk and it reads it okay,
> and will get so far to reinstall, but then it does the same thing and
> reboots itself.

Please describe the "Windows disk." Is it an actual Windows XP
installation CD (and if so, what SP level?) or something else?

What does the phrase "will get so far to reinstall" mean? What exactly
did you do? Were you trying to use the Recovery Console? Were you trying
to perform a Repair Install? Please include as many details as possible
in your next post.