Can't start my PC

[ham_411]

ok i need serious help here. i let someone use my pc for a few hours and he downloaded something that put that crappy security center 2008 thing that has a similar logo to the windows one.now the thing is, whatever it's done, my pc won't start. i'm running XP and when i turn it on i get the XP logo with the scrolling bar, then nothing. where the login screen should be, its just black with no mouse cursor or anything.i've tried to run it in safe mode, but when i do that it attempts to do it, it runs 15-20 locations along the lines of system32/etc etc then stops. now normally it does this then would start.so can anyone tell me what the hell is up with my pc

[Jazzman]

Re: Can't start my PC

sounds bad.... try reformating..

[The_Eliminator]

Re: Can't start my PC

How about trying a system restore and see if that does the trick?

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Re: Can't start my PC

1st assuming you can, i would take your hard drive out and put it in someone elses machine (who has anti virus) scan it and back up all the data you want to keep. There are other pieces of software which you can use to back up without booting into your operating system (usually booting from disk and backing up onto flash drive/external HDD) but i dont know them off the top of my head.

Once you have backed up everything you need to boot up from the windows disk and either try a windows repair or just wipe everything and reinstall windows from fresh.

If you have any problems with these steps post up and il try and write a more detailed explaination

[ham_411]

Re: Can't start my PC

I had already tried connecting my HD to another system in my house (the one im writting this from) but they have different connecting attachments so that didn't work. i looked to take my cable out but it seemed that it went into the PSU and although i can do a fair bit with PC's i didn't want to **** it up so i left it.
hopefully getting someone to have a look at it tomorrow, because i need it, plus i really don't want to have to back it up as its a 250GB and near full.
i took a bit of time to look on the web and see what i could find. the best result led me to windows.com where i downloaded windows xp as an ISO image and burnt it to a disc with the intention of repairing the setup. however, when i selected boot from CD ROM it did **** all. there was one more option but that involved downloading files and putting them to floppy discs. this is great except for the fact that my system has no floppy drive

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Re: Can't start my PC

I had already tried connecting my HD to another system in my house (the one im writting this from) but they have different connecting attachments so that didn't work. i looked to take my cable out but it seemed that it went into the PSU and although i can do a fair bit with PC's i didn't want to **** it up so i left it.

you should be able to get the correct one from maplin or a local computer store. If you can explain what it is you have i can point out what you need.

hopefully getting someone to have a look at it tomorrow, because i need it, plus i really don't want to have to back it up as its a 250GB and near full.

I know backing up everything may be a nightmare but its better to save something than lose it all so that would always be my first step before i go about anything like installing windows again. I try to avoid filling up hard drives to the brim as if they fragment there is nothing you can do about it. I have had some hard drives fail on me around the same time as they have got near ful aswell, this could be concidence but i dont think it is.

i took a bit of time to look on the web and see what i could find. the best result led me to windows.com where i downloaded windows xp as an ISO image and burnt it to a disc with the intention of repairing the setup. however, when i selected boot from CD ROM it did **** all. there was one more option but that involved downloading files and putting them to floppy discs. this is great except for the fact that my system has no floppy drive

Sorry if im asking the obvious but did u burn the disk with the iso on it or did u unpack the iso to the disk?
A proper windows disk should do the job fine, if it didnt boot up fromt he disk i doubt its the right one or you made a mistake somewhere.

Get back in touch when your friend had a look at it :)