windows xp home not fully loading

I have a hp pavillion ze4300 laptop that will not boot, it goes as far as windows xp screen and stops, I have tried last known good configuration to no avail, safe mode won't work either

Then if you are familiar with repair console you can use that, failing that you will have to install over the top - depends on the recovery disks supplied with the laptop - whether you get a separate xp cd or not, if its a straight format and reload recovery type, you may have a problem saving your data.

At the moment I can't contact the owner but I used my xp disc to enter console but I don't have admin password, what do you suggest when I do ,
FIXBOOT, FIXMBR is there a registry fix like scanreg/repair in XP?

here is an overview of your options

You need the admin password, whatever you do.

Thanks Noo Noo, if all else fails could I install another os, to extract data from the corrupt installation, the user has important data he needs to recover?

Then the safest way (if you are up for it) is to get a laptop ide converter, and slave the laptop drive to a desktop and copy the data over that way.

If not, if you have ghost (xp compatible version) and the lappie has a burner or a network card etc, you can ghost the entire partition and then use ghost explorer to extract the files.

where can I get a laptop ide converter? I don't know they existed, also it has a network adapter but don't forget it won't boot into windows, although mouse pointer is showing and is not frozen, would ghost see it? I have version 2003

ghost will use the nic in dos, if there are dos drivers for it.

ide laptop converters around £8 - anywhere from ebay to maplin.co.uk for instance.

Thanks Noo Noo, I just ordered one.

I have got admin password now, I tried fixboot, which did not solve anything, so I typed fixmbr and got the following, "this computer appears to have a non standard or invalid master boot record.
fixmbr maydamage your partition tables if you proceed.
this could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk inaccesable..
if you are not having problems accessing your drive do not continue.

are you sure you want to write a new mbr?"

its a hp laptop do they have non standard mbrs?

Yep..they have hidden partitions that contain the recovery data..if you redo the boot record, you will have to order a recovery cd

Thanks looks like I better wait for the ide/laptop converter, this laptop boots to just before the desktop appears and stops, does not freeze mouse pointer works, would installing windows over the top be an option , though i can't risk losing dara?

you shouldn't lose data, and to make sure you could do a parallel install - and recover the data that way. Depends on the drive space you have available.

Wait for the converter to pull a clean copy of the data off.

GOT CONVERTER and slaved up laptop drive, but it won't let me open folder says access is denied, is there anyway round this, she has a password for windows, but I can;t boot the laptop drive

Well, I'm sure this isn't what you wanna hear, but... I would install the drive back in the laptop and do it all from there. First, go back to our friend the recovery console and run chkdsk /r. The /r switch will detect and attempt recovery of bad sectors and missing or damaged system files.

If the system doesn't run normally after this, re-run XP setup, bypass the recovery console and continue the installation. Setup should check for existing XP installations, find the current one, and give you the option to repair it. Most of the time, this will fix the problem. If not, then re- re-run setup and replace the current XP installation with a new one. You do not want to do this if you can avoid it, because all programs will need to be reinstalled, but no data files will be lost (barring previous damage). If you are careful to use the original User Name and password, you should still have all the data files in their original location. If you use a different user name, you have created a new profile and the old data files will be found in the old profile's document folder under Documents and Settings.