System Restore crash

To begin with I am a self taught (trial & errorssssssssss).
Recently a neighbor brought her computer over because of an internet e-mail problem. Because I was in a hurry, I just run a System Restore to 2 weeks ago.BIG MISTAKE!!!!!!!! Now at bootup I get a screen asking me to do a safe bootup or a normal bootup. Both give me a normal startup XP screen and then I get a blank screen and stays there with no more activity. I have reinstalled XP (repair) a couple of times with no results. No errors encountered on repair install. I don't want to reformat and reinstall unless I have to. She has no backups!! Any ideas what I can try to do without formatting?????????? BIOS problem maybe and how do I check if Bios working properly????

Computer is a VPR Matrix Model 1620 w/Windows XP Home.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Originally Posted by billgman

To begin with I am a self taught (trial & errorssssssssss).
Recently a neighbor brought her computer over because of an internet e-mail problem. Because I was in a hurry, I just run a System Restore to 2 weeks ago.BIG MISTAKE!!!!!!!! Now at bootup I get a screen asking me to do a safe bootup or a normal bootup. Both give me a normal startup XP screen and then I get a blank screen and stays there with no more activity. I have reinstalled XP (repair) a couple of times with no results. No errors encountered on repair install. I don't want to reformat and reinstall unless I have to. She has no backups!! Any ideas what I can try to do without formatting?????????? BIOS problem maybe and how do I check if Bios working properly????

Computer is a VPR Matrix Model 1620 w/Windows XP Home.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Not much help but this does not sound like a Bios problem to me. Sounds to me to be a problem with XP. I personally have not had much good luck with Repair. You can yank the hd out and plug into as a slave into a working computer and copy all the data off of it. Then reformat it so she doesn't loose any data. But this will require that she have all the CD's for the programs themselves though.

I agree. BUT before you put that drive in another machine, make sure the machine has full antivirus protection and is completely up to date.

A repair install can also solve your problem without going to another machine - but if the problem with the email was due to a virus, then it may make things worse.

How to do a repair install

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Originally Posted by NooNoo

I agree. BUT before you put that drive in another machine, make sure the machine has full antivirus protection and is completely up to date.

A repair install can also solve your problem without going to another machine - but if the problem with the email was due to a virus, then it may make things worse.

How to do a repair install

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According to the original post they already did several repair installs.

I did do a XP repair install (twice) with the same results - no help. I have a XP manual and it showed me how to do the repair install, exactly as the site NooNoo took me to. Everything seemed to install OK until it came to the reboot after it said install was successful - still get the blank screen or a blank safe-mode screen if I choose a safe mode boot. The cursor does show up on the screen if this is relevant. After the repair install it seems like someone shut off the machine instead of a normal reboot. I also am NOT getting any beeps when she boots.

I also did do an up to date NAV scan before doing the restore and nothing showed up.

If you need more info - please let me know. Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

try this- in recovery console do a chkdsk /R

Ended up using the restore disks and everything seems to be working fine. Hooked up hard drive to my computer and copied the files she wanted before restoring. Will I have to register XP on the reinstall????????? Never asked me to register. Is this because XP was on the reinstall disk and not a stand alone????
Just curious - don't want her calling me a week from now saying that she has to register XP to keep using it. Thanks!!!

Restore cd's don't usually have to be registered in the same way as retail xp, so don't worry. Activation may be another thing though - and it is normal just to go on line and activate, only takes a few mins on dialup.

You can download a p2p program, then download "Get Data Back" then put her HDD in your computer as slave, doesn't matter if it won't show up in my PC, as long as BIOS sees it. Then start get data back, find her files, copy them over to yours, then format her hdd, then copy her stuff back. Make sure you copy the whole outlook folder, then once that's done, when you install xp new, it will also install outlook new, all you have to do is copy and paste her old folder from your hdd, to the program files folder, and it will say there is already a folder named this blah blah, all files in folder will be replaced, just click yes. Everything will be the same as if she left it..

This is a last resort though if you can't get it going.

AG