Windows Boot Issues

[Jafo]

Back in mid-January of this year I installed InterVideo DVD Copy5 Platinum trial which crashed my computer. Ever since I got it back up (didn't reinstall Windows) it has had problems booting up. It takes no less that 5 restarts to get it to boot. When it does start to boot, it shows the boot menu which I have to select boot last known working condition. If I select normal it starts to boot(windows splash screen) then it goes to a black screen and that where it stops. I'm trying to get away with not reinstalling windows until I get a copy of Vista, so I'm hoping you guys have some ideas/solutions I can try.

Steps taken to resolve issue:
- uninstalled InterVideo DVD Copy5 Platinum trial
- anti-virus program
- Spybot search & destroy
- regcleaner
- chkdsk

For those that have helped with Ubuntu, I don't have it at this time but when I did it boot perfectly. I plan to reinstall Ubuntu soon as I can resolve this issue.

[yurimxpxman]

Originally Posted by Jafo

Back in mid-January of this year I installed InterVideo DVD Copy5 Platinum trial which crashed my computer. Ever since I got it back up (didn't reinstall Windows) it has had problems booting up. It takes no less that 5 restarts to get it to boot. When it does start to boot, it shows the boot menu which I have to select boot last known working condition. If I select normal it starts to boot(windows splash screen) then it goes to a black screen and that where it stops. I'm trying to get away with not reinstalling windows until I get a copy of Vista, so I'm hoping you guys have some ideas/solutions I can try.

Steps taken to resolve issue:
- uninstalled InterVideo DVD Copy5 Platinum trial
- anti-virus program
- Spybot search & destroy
- regcleaner
- chkdsk

For those that have helped with Ubuntu, I don't have it at this time but when I did it boot perfectly. I plan to reinstall Ubuntu soon as I can resolve this issue.

I know it's a long shot, but you could try the fixboot command from the XP disk's recovery console (not the auto-recovery, but you could try that too if all else fails).

[Jafo]

Originally Posted by yurimxpxman

I know it's a long shot, but you could try the fixboot command from the XP disk's recovery console (not the auto-recovery, but you could try that too if all else fails).

When I couldn't get windows to boot at all I tried the Repair option with the Windows disc and I typed my passoword and it went to 1:)Windows or something similar.

Is this what it is supposed to do? First time I've tried that option and it actually didn't reject the selection.

Well, if it is supposed to do that, I did the fixboot and fixmbr and thats the fix that got me to my current condition of having the irregular booting(at least it boots even thought it's just sometimes).

[Cyberlon]

My suggestion is to first test the hard drive for stability. Use the manufacturer's utility (like powermax for maxtor drives) to test the sectors on the hard drive, but make sure to avoid any options that overwrite data.

[Lead Head]

S&M CPU Burn utility has a pretty powerful HD error tester built in. It raised by drive temps by about 5*C during the testing.

Heres a download for it
http://amdfan12.homelinux.com:1080/apps/S&M.zip

Execute S&M.exe, and under the settings tab, Un-check everything, and put all the sliders to to Disabled/as low as the can go. Then click the HDD tab, select the drive, and hit run.

[Jafo]

A friend gave me a copy of partitionMagic 8 today to fix (merge) my partitioned drives. Does this have anything built in to check hard drive errors? I also was going to download the Seagate utility for my Seagate HDD's to test them if the partitionMagic doesn't have anything worth using.

[Cyberlon]

Partition Magic 8 does not do any extensive testing for hard drives, and as a side note, I recommend not using Partition Magic on any drive containing LILO as the boot manager, as the two conflict. (last time I checked) -- I seem to remember you mentioning having Linux.

[Jafo]

Originally Posted by Cyberlon

Partition Magic 8 does not do any extensive testing for hard drives, and as a side note, I recommend not using Partition Magic on any drive containing LILO as the boot manager, as the two conflict. (last time I checked) -- I seem to remember you mentioning having Linux.

I did have Ubuntu but I accidentally killed it, so I had to remove it. I only have XP now with intentions of reinstalling Ubuntu.

I got home yesterday and finally got windows to boot and for some strange reason the computer saw my DVD drive as a hard drive. At this point I had enough and decided to try a windows repair. I was able to get the repair started but I got some error(after further research found out it was a common issue with upgrading) and Windows couldn't see my DVD drive at the point of trying to reinstall/repair windows. I then had to, which I should have done when all the problems started, was to do a full install of windows and wipe the slate clean. Everything worked perfectly on the full install. I now have to get everything setup for the Vista install when I get a copy.

[Hitman]

I suggest installing Vista fresh, instead of installing it on top (upgrading) of XP.

[Jafo]

Originally Posted by Hitman

I suggest installing Vista fresh, instead of installing it on top (upgrading) of XP.

yeah, I'm planning a dual-boot setup so I can fall back on XP in case there are software confilcts with Vista. I will be setting up a seperate partition tonight using partition magic 8 for Vista and I'm going to use my second hard drive to intall all programs to keep everything off the OS partitions. I should have done that to start with, but live and learn I guess. My old machine I set seperate partitions but I was lazy when I set everything up for this machine and paid the price.