problems booting up [XP]

S

sf4oaks

New Member
Hi, I am running Windows XP Home [SP2] on a Compaq Presario-s4200nx. I am having problems booting up. This is the second time this problem has arisen. The first time was about 6 mos. ago when I decided the best thing to do was reformat my HD. My computer worked fine up until about 2 days ago, when this same exact thing started again.....
It will take me to the menu screen where I have the options to pick from Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode with Debugging or whatever, Last config, start windows normally etc.
I tried booting from safe mode and doing a sys. restore to earlier dates with no success.
Sometimes my computer starts OK from choosing "start normally" other times it may take one or two tries. When it does start OK, it seems to take longer than normal, going thru split second things on the screen that I didn't normally see on a healthy startup.
I tried using my Recovery Tools CD, typing in the FIXBOOT command, with the result "new bootsector was successfully written".....no change/improvement in booting.
Then on the same CD I tried/typed "FIXMBR"...with the reply "this computer appears to have a non standard or invalid master boot record"....I did not wish to push my luck by going any further.
 
ya ive had the same problem before i jsut reformatted my computer and it was fine, im not sure why your OS could be screwing up, do you have a back up (everyone should alaways make a image/backup of there computer once they goet it how they want, if something screws up you jsut run it)
you could always get a program like Norton Backitup, but i dont know what to do if you cant system restore
 
I would like to find out what is causing this problem and correct it, I really don't want to be reformatting everytime that this comes up.
 
ya i know what you mean, what you could try doing if you still have the windwos xp disc is put it in the drive and boot it up as if your going to reformat and click repair (didnt work for me but never know)
 
Hey Dark, thanks for the replies... in response to your first reply... I ALWAYS backup everything on this machine regularly... I guess that I could try a repair, anything at this point...........
 
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