Will NOT Bootup!

[stevejohnson1958]

If you didn't setup a password with the Administrator account then you should be able to continue without entering the password.

[woodworks]

Any Other suggestion???
I've typed my name and everything else I can think of and nothing works.

[stevejohnson1958]

Have you tried simply hitting the Enter key on your keyboard without typing anything?

[woodworks]

Yes I have.
It says invalid password.
I can only try three times and then it says login failed, press ENTER to restart computer.

I've tried everything I know.  Since there has never been an adim password, I have no idea why it won't let me in.

[stevejohnson1958]

Instead of using the Recovery Console...try this:

1.  Boot from your XP installation CD.

2.  At the welcome screen, choose enter.

3.  Once at the license agreement, press F8.

4.  At the next screen, choose to repair the selected Windows XP installation by pressing R.

5.  The files will begin to install and then your PC will reboot. During the reboot you will be presented with option of booting from the CD again by pressing any key. Don't press anything. Allow it to finish the install without booting from the CD again.

[woodworks]

I have not seen an option to boot from CD.  I never get to the welcome screen.  It never get's that far.

[stevejohnson1958]

If your computer boots from the CD...you should see this across the screen:

"Press any key to boot from CD......."

Do you see this?

If so...press any key on your keyboard at that time.

If not...boot into BIOS and set the boot options to boot fron the CD first.

[woodworks]

Sorry.
I have been doing that.  It came up one time into the scree where you said to then hit R.  It did a check and then said something about having to reboot and after that it went back to trying to startup and now I don't know how to get back to that screen where it is trying to re-boot the second time.  I hope I'm making sense to you.  I'm lost at this crap. 
I'm still trying to get it back to the re-boot stage that it was at to see if it will actually re-boot into windows.

[stevejohnson1958]

Follow the directions I gave you in this post to the letter, please:  http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,58142.msg366845.html#msg366845

Also...remember what I told you...expect data loss.

[woodworks]

How much and what kind of loss?
If I'm going to loose, maybe I'm just as good to just start over and reinstall it from the begining???

[stevejohnson1958]

Now isn't really the best time to be asking that question...since I have already warned you prior to attempting this.

When you do a repair installation of Windows XP...there is no guarantee that any of the data that you have saved on your computer will be there once the repair is completed.

At this particular point...better late than never...you may as well go ahead and do a complete re-installation of the operating system.

Hopefully your computer came with recovery software...so that you have all the drivers and software that you need to bring the computer back to factory shipped specs.

If not, you'll need to install the operating system, then visit the manufacturer's website for he drivers and software you need for your particular model.

[woodworks]

Actually you said and I copy & pasted

Please note:  There may be the possibility of some data removal when atttempting a repair of the Windows XP operating system?

I don't call that a 'warning'.  I don't have a problem with loosing some data.
You could have just said that it wouldn't matter if I repaired or re-installed, I'm going to loose what I had anyway. That would have been a warning.

I would have not gone through all this bs if I have know I would actually loose everything.  If I'm going to loose it, then I could have just saved all the aggravation of trying to repair it.
As far as the computer coming with the os, it didn't. I had to buy that seperate and install it myself.
I'm going to go see what it is doing, I'll let you know.
 
 
 

[stevejohnson1958]

You're welcome...glad I could help...

[TheEmperor]

999/1000 times there is no data loss from a Repair. I do them constantly and have rarely had issues. You jumped the gun and started randomly choosing options you didn't understand from what I can see. You need to learn to read menus before you press buttons.

[woodworks]

Well it looks like it doesn't really matter at this point.  It looks like it didn't even try to repair but rather just reinstalled itself.

I thought there was a way to fix it.  I wish you had said there wasn't.  I'm not blaming you or anything, but it would have at least made me aware that there was no other option then to reinstall.

But thanks for what you gave me.  Although it didn't do a bit of good.  For the future, is there anything that will fix or repair this if it happens again?
I have webroot and avg and had some kind of virus thing on it.  Is there anything I can get to prevent this in the future???