lost power, now WINXP wont boot

[jbliss]

power went up and down during a storm and now my WINXP wont boot (HP m1070n Media Center PC). It always comes up with the "Windows did not start successfully" mode, with the safe mode boot options.

All of the Safe modes display a couple screens worth of driver file names, then reboot.

If I choose to boot with last known good config it brings up the Windows XP startup screen and a few seconds later it reboots. So does the boot with start Windows normally option.

Tried Restore mode, but after some number of minutes it also reboots.

I have a set of recovery CD's that I made when I got the computer but I dont really want to reformat and lose data.

Any ideas?

[Scarecrow Man]

You may want to try http://www.simplyguides.net/guides/repair_...llation_xp.html

or

http://www.simplyguides.net/guides/recover...ry_console.html

and use the fixboot and fixmbr commands. I would also recomend chkdsk to see if windows cand detect the errors automatically.

[jbliss]

Unfortunately, my computer didnt come with an XP Installation CD. I called the store where I bought the computer and they said that HP doesnt supply installation cds with their computers.

I tried booting off the recovery cd's I had and used the restore option, but it rebooted too.

When I tried the recovery option, it said it was going to reformat the drive, so I didnt try that.

Could I use somebody elses Installation CD or are they specific to a type of computer and hardware?

Could I boot from a floppy?

[scuzzman]

They are not specific to hardware - but I'd advise againt it as their license keys are.

As for your current predicament, you need to use the restore option, then, when the computer reboots, enter the BIOS and disable booting from CD to keep it from booting from the CD again on the reboot (the reboot is normal).