ok so.. it's kind of a long story so i will try and make it short. so about 3 months ago i had this 2002 dell computer. i had for obviously about 5 years and it was a pretty good machine.. didnt give me to many problems until one day the spawn of satan came apon me. my virus protection was wicked outdated and the hardware was fine so i'm assuming its a virus... i call it the windows xp boot loop. it's probably the most frustrating thing i have ever delt with on a computer. the problem was, when i started my computer it would go to the power failure boot menu. no matter which option i chose it would always end with the same result.. the computer would restart and do the exact same thing. it would usualy get to the windows xp logo screen and it would start to load and then shut down and restart again. i did everything there was to do. i posted on this site to try and get some help.. but nothing.. so after about a week a gave up.. i needed a new computer anyways. my aunt had a computer about a month old that she thought was broken.. turns out all it needed was more ram and a replacement power source. so it was pretty good. i also took a few parts from my dell, the ram, video card, the harddrive, and the cd burner. the computer worked great. i thought my the hardrive from the dell was corrupted but i put it in my pc as a slave and there was no problems. i got the nortan virus protection and scaned both HDs for viruses and it took of a few from the old HD.. and all was fine.. it ran smoothly for the last 3 months until last night. i have been just getting in to remote desktop sharing, so i could use my computer at a friends house or from my laptop at school. so since i wasent sure about the kind of protection my RDS program would offer me from intrusion, i desided to download a folder lock. i have used this kind of program in the past so i thought it was ok to DL...definitly wrong.. once i DL it i clicked instalation and it started.. i noticed that it said that only 94% finished DLing and if i tryed to close the DL screen it was say something like "do you really want to exit now? 1 file will not be downloaded.".. this was kind of weird considering the program was already instaling so i just thought it was a glitch.. then my computer kinda froze on me. the instalation screen and DL locked up. i tryed to hit control+alt+delete but it didnt work. task manager didnt come up so i went into run to try and get task manager to open from there but it didnt work. it said something like " cannot open taskmgr. it is being used by another source or program." ok i was a little confused by that.. so i thought it was just a glitch to i shut down my computer and tryed to reboot. i then contemplated taking a hammer to my pc after what i saw. the windows boot loop was back. i couldn't believe it. frusterated after many trys to reboot, i went into the bios menu and reset all the settings, didnt work. i tryed a few other little things.. nothing.. then i started to do pointless things in desperation like replacing the cmos battery. now having no clue what the problem was.. i thought it might be coruption in my HD so i switched my master and slave around so maybe i could do a virus scan or something on the HD.. but that sure as hell did nothing.. the same god damn thing. sorry, the making it a short story kinda thing didnt really work out. haha. but you can see how frustrated i am.. i really dont want to start from scratch.. again.. that is a 100% last resort. PLEASE! someone help me! hey my names mike, i'm only 17 going on 18. i have been fooling around with computers ever since i was little, taking them apart, putting them back together, ect. i'm no expert, but i know a few thing

Last known good config?; also safe-mode - can you boot to that level? If you can boot to safe-mode - then follow the instructions at: http://www.tunexp.com/tips/maintain... http://www.theeldergeek.com/auto_re... to disable the auto reboot etc...; as this may allow you to see what's going on... (The second link gives you two ways to do this.) Also is there an acceptable restore point available? Possibly a repair installation?

no, none of the boot options work.. i tryed each one haha.. but i am going try a repair installation tonight. thanks mike hey my names mike, i'm 17 going on 18. i have been fooling around with computers ever since i was little, taking them apart, putting them back together, ect. i'm no expert, but i know a few things.

ok now i am freaking out... i got my installation cd and put it in my computer and i tryed to boot with the repair option but it said the setup could not find any hardrives installed on my computer.. both hardrives are hooked up and set so now i guess i have a big problem what do i do? hey my names mike, i'm 17 going on 18. i have been fooling around with computers ever since i was little, taking them apart, putting them back together, ect. i'm no expert, but i know a few things.

remove the hd that does not have the xp OS on it. odds are you misconfigured the drives and/or didn't detect them in the bios. now that is short! Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Suggest they internet search and they learn a skill for a lifetime.

There are a number of reasons your PC might not boot (Viruses, Missing/Corrupt Files, Bad Sectors/Damaged Hard Drive etc) but what I would do 1st of all is check if your PC will boot from a Bootable CD (the PC does not boot from the Hard Drive - just from the CD! and you can run programs from the CD to change passwords, scan for viruses, check and fix the hard drive, recover files, etc). You may then be able to fix the problem (using the tools included) or at least determine if it is a hardware or software fault (if the PC boots from CD it must be Windows or the Hard Drive that is corrupt, if it wont boot from a bootable CD its probably another hardware fault. i.e. Motherboard / Memory) You can get a Bootable PC Repair CD or a Bootable Bart Disk at www.discmaster.info click here: http://www.discmaster.info/UK/tools... or here: http://www.diskmaster.info/USA/tool... Once you have booted using the Boot disk you should be able to see your hard drives (if they are installed properly) and check them for errors etc. Hope this helps!

And Knoppix (a linux variant on a CD) will also allow you to boot the system; then scan it for nasties - via the www...; also to transfer off any critical data etc.. too - pendng a full resolution of problem(s). You can download an image or buy the CD - for very little cost + shipping. Knoppix.com