computer keeps cycling on starting.

[Mr. E]

 Dell 9200, windows XP operating system normal updates, on start up normal screen comes up, then Dell XP 061, BIOS 2.5.3 with loading bar gets to end of bar then returns to start up screen. keeps repeating cycle. no beeps at all. cant check light codes at moment as running diagnostics... "express diagnostic test" ok, "cannot boot OS diagnostic test" running now and so far ok..... complete noobie, any suggestions. only thing on computer of concern is family photos, if nothing else would like to be able to get them.

[Allan]

1) What is new or different since the last time everything worked properly (ie, new hw, new sw, virus, error, etc)?

2) Can you boot to safe mode?

[Mr. E]

as far as can tell nothing... except son was playing on a game (don't know which) when told to exit it wouldnt on screen (X) so I think he turned it off at box, when restarted has been doing this.
not installed or uninstalled anything new. no recent error messages.
can't get any screen beyond BIOS screen.

Mr. E

[Allan]

Boot to the XP CD. Choose the first repair option, which will take you to the Recovery Console. Once there, run chkdsk /r. Let's see if that helps. If not, we can try a repair install.

[Mr. E]

got disc, will try once diagnostic completed, on last bit now but estimated time 1 hour.

[Allan]

Take your time, this forum is always open

[Mr. E]

ok afew things...
all diagnostics checked out fine (just took hours).
tried restarting again, same problem, went to boot device menu CD-ROM "selected device not available".
tried changing order in set - up menu, no different.
disc goes round and green light on (flashing) to start then goes off.
also have lights 1,2 and 3 on steady (in main they seem to change rapidly with the start up sequence but have never been steadily on).
will check connections in stack.
ok out of depth in box, wouldnt know if something not connected at all and should be but all connections that are in place wiggled and seem good.

[Allan]

tried restarting again, same problem, went to boot device menu CD-ROM "selected device not available".

I don't understand what that means. Are you saying that the bios would not allow you to move the cd to the top of the boot order or are you saying that after you did, you could not boot to it. Please try to be clear in your explanation. Your post above says a lot, but little of it is clear - at least not to me.

[Mr. E]

made some progress.
disc is in, recognises CD, loads then gives me a choice:
set up windows XP now,
to repair a windows XP installation using recovery console
or quit.
pick recovery
get:

1: K:\minint
which windows installation would you like to log onto

at this point only seems to accept single letters or numbers...
tried 1 and Minint comes up again, only command I can get to work is chkdsk (but without the run or /r) which says volume appears in good condition and was not checked Use +p if want to check the volume anyway.
trying various permutations but mostly says command not recognised.

got it,
4086 bytes in each allocation, 1214546 total allocation units on disc,
137918 allocation units available.

[Allan]

k:\minit is your recovery partition as setup by Dell. It appears the system does not see your system partition. This could be because the master boot record is damaged, the hd is damaged, or you somehow deleted / formatted the system partition. I'd start by going to the website of your hd manufacturer and downloading their diagnostic utility. Burn it to cd and run it.

After that (or alternatively) you can try a repair install if necessary. Boot to the XP CD and choose the SECOND repair option, allowing XP to install on top of itself. After completion you'll need to go to Windows Update and download & install all updates (except for hardware & driver related updates, which should never be downloaded from Windows Update - only from the OEM websites). Here is a clear tutorial on how to perform a repair install: http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/topic/138-how-to-repair-windows-xp/

[Mr. E]

thanks... that don't sound so good but looks like diagnosis correct, following the tutorial, gives me a series of partitions but no repair option, doesn't seem to recognise it anywhere. so it seeems I can set up XP to be installed on one partition, c has the largest space, but I gather that all data in that partition will be lost... does that mean bye bye photos?
alternatives are I (back-up) and K but don't know what else would be there so difficult to guess what will be lost.
there is a choice to create a partition could that help?

[Allan]

C: is typically your system partition and that would be where the OS is currently installed (and where you'd want to reinstall, should it come to that). If you want to try to recover your photos before doing anything else, you can slave the drive to another system and see if you can access them in that manner. After that, you can run the hd diagnostics and see if the hd is good or needs to be replaced.

[jason2074]

bye bye photos?

Try using  Puppy Linux to recover files from your drive. You would need a working computer with a CD drive to burn the ISO file.

[Mr. E]

thanks guys, getting to the limits of my capabilities. am working through the puppy linux suggestion but suspect that will end up getting cold feet and taking it to a professional before I do anything irretrivable.

many thanks. got further than I thought I could / would.

[Mr. E]

tried the puppy linux route to recovery, loaded fine from CD but no file on compter readable, guess that means hard drive is fritzed ?!!

Mr. E

thanks.