weird issue when booting

[guest_27]

hey there guys,

have some weird issue when booting my computer. im getting some strange error when my computer boots, its a Dell Windows XP, it will turn on but go blank after a complete bootup, the characters im getting is very strange and its hard to explain exactly what it says but i would suspect its an issue with the hard drive, any helps greatly appreciated thanks so much in advance guys. Also, apologies if this is posted in the wrong section but i figured the XP forum was the best place to post it in since im running a Dell XP machine. thanks for the help.

Frank

[patio]

Welcome Aboard....when you say characters on the screen is it getting to Windows ? ?...or not ?

Also do you still have the Dell XP CD that shipped with the PC ?

[guest_27]

hi patio,

thanks for the welcome, and for moving my topic in the correct section. i accidentally posted in the wrong place, basically it will turn on ok, but wont get to Windows, the heading of the error says "Windows Boot Manager" and it has me select from 3 various steps, but when they pop up i typically ignore them and turn my machine off since i didnt want to mess further with the computer due to limited knowledge with pcs, however to respond to ur question i do still have the Dell XP CD that was shipped with the PC, if theres any more details u need me to provide will make sure to post them here thanks again.

[patio]

1 of the choices should be last known good configuration...select that and let's see what happens.

[Senior16]

Hey there, Try to clean your hard drive, Maybe it is the issue

[Allan]

Hey there, Try to clean your hard drive, Maybe it is the issue

What does "clean your hard drive" mean?

[guest_27]

patio,

Tried last known good configuration as u suggested me to, it was in the Advance Options list, and it got me past the Windows Boot Manager black error screen and it went straight to the normal process of Windows xp startup, seemed to boot completely fine afterwards like it normally would, and the good news is none of my files were deleted! everything was there as is. is there anything u recommend i do to prevent this from occuring again? Thanks a ton for the help.

[guest_27]

Senior 16,

My hard drive is already "clean" i guess however it has a lot of important files/documents that i need for work, when u say to clean it are u implying that there's something i need to delete or get rid of that could've caused the issue or are u suspecting my hard drive is infected? thanks so much.

[patio]

You can safely ignore senior's advice...as long as it's running fine.

I would however since this is occuring start backing up whats important on the drive...being it's a Win XP it's likely an older hard drive...and who knows how longer it'll run...

Not sayin that was the cause of the issue...but most likely on an older PC.

[guest_27]

patio,

its running completely fine now in fact actually to tell u the truth my computer is running a bit faster then before(actually typing from it right now) thanks so much again for the assistance, one last question, i understand Windows XP is no longer supported anymore, however is it still possible to do updates on it?

[patio]

It only gets rare security updates now...however i still run an XP PC and i have zero issues with it.
I say if it's not broke...no worries.

[guest_27]

hey patio,

my apologies, missed the part where u mentioned to start backing up the drive. if its ok for me to ask(since this will be my first time doing a backup) how should i go about backing up my important files in the hard drive, is there a particular way that is recommended? thx.