Windows won't boot - worst problem I've ever had

Wow. I've had some problems in the past, but this one takes the cake. If you guys can figure this out, I'll owe you immensely. I'm convinced I tried to load something I shouldn't have today and that's what is causing the problem I am going to describe. When I attempt to boot my PC, it immediately takes me to a text screen that reads, "Sorry for the inconvience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change may have caused this." It gives me three options: 1) Safe mode 2) Safe mode with Networking 3) Safe mode with command prompt 4) Last known good configuration prompt and 5) Start Windows normally Every option I try fetches the same result. It procedes to the "Windows XP" loading screen with the little bar at the bottom pulsing back and forth like it is loadingl. But then a couple of seconds into it, the blue screen of death appears w/ an error message. Only problem is, I cannot read the error message as my CPU immediately restarts. And this is an endless cycle. It has likely restarted 15 times in the last thirty minutes. Have you guys ever come across anything like this before? Again, I'm pretty sure the EXE file I tried to load caused this. It was a suspicious looking file, and the second I clicked it, I had a feeling that I shouldn't have. Any help would be hugely appreciated, Chuck

hmm.. anyone noticing a patern here, or is it just me? Do you have a Windows installation cdrom..? Put it in, reboot. When it asks "Press any key to boot from cd" do so.. follow the instructions; XP Pro: Chose the "repair from console" option. Xp Home: navigate as if to install a fresh copy of XP chosing the SECOND repair option (the first time it gives the option, its to repair from the console, the second time its an automated process thats what you want). XP pro: when the it loads the OS you choose, (1) or (0) … at the prompt type SFC /scannow and hit enter. post back and let us know please, as I have noticed this very same problem way to frequently

Man. Okay, here's where I'm at. I navigated to my dos prompt having chosen "R" to enter the Recovery Console on my XP Pro. It brings me to C:\WINDOWS. I type the command so that the entire strings reads, C:\WINDOWS> SFC scannow. Unfortunately, the message that pops up reads, "The command is not recognized Type HELP for a list of supported commands." Furthermore, before I got your reply, I was doing quite a bit of research on this problem, and another forum suggested using the "chkdsk r" command. So I did. I reported that one or more problems were found and corrected. However, when I attempted to restart, I now gets an ominous, "A disk read error occured. Press control + alt + delete to restart." thanks, chuck

Sorry for the back-to-back posts, but now the "A disk read error occured. Press control + alt + delete to restart" has quit showing up (thankfully). I'm now back to the original problem: the "We apologize for the inconvience…" message, followed by the Windows XP logo, followed by the blue screen of death, followed by the automatic restart. Thanks, Chuck

well.. if you type /help.. it will list the commands.. look for the command that will list bootable partitions.. BE CAREFUL though.. you can use/and more than likely will need to use…FIXBOOT /MBR but dont do that just yet.. see if it finds any bootable partitions and post back

Okay, I entered "C:\>bootcfg /list" and it reported: Total entries in boot list: 1 [1] "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" OS Load Options: /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn OS Loacations: C:\WINDOWS

FISHY..—>NoExecute=OptIn OS Loacations: C:\WINDOWS do you have valuable information on this drive that you cant afford to loose?

Yikes. Yeah, I have most of my work on it. I'm sensing you're thinking I'm gonna have to reformat?

no.. no.. no.. just making sure that were on the same track here. (hate spending time to help someone save all there data .. only for them say "aww to hell with.. i'll format".. you know?).. should read as follows [boot loader] timeout=30 Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\Windows [Operating Systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\Windows"Microsoft Windows XP Professional"/fastdetect

Oh, I see. Yeah, I wish it could be that easy for me, but - stupidly - I haven't backed up much of my stuff. Which is what I'll do the moment I get this box working again. Yeah, it doesn't read: [boot loader] timeout=30 Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\Windows [Operating Systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\Windows"Microsoft Windows XP Professional"/fastdetect All I'm getting is: Total entries in boot list: 1 [1] "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" OS Load Options: /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn OS Loacations: C:\WINDOWS

OK.. run fixboot … NOT fixboot mbr.. just see if a simple rewrite will curb this thing

Perhaps I should mention that early on, when I attempted to boot up in "Safe Mode", it began listing a string of multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1) commands - the first being kernel (something or other). It would fill the screen up w/ these commands before the blue screen of death. Don't know if this is useful info or not.

Oh! I'm sorry, I missed the "fixboot" step entirely. Okay, I tried your original solution: C:\> FIXBOOT /MBR and got: FIXBOOT cannot infdd the system drive, or the drive specified is not valid. Should I be in the windows32 directory? I then tried, C:\> FIXBOOT And it asks: "The target partition is C: Are you sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition C:? Should I type "y"?

Hmm. I performed the "fixboot" steps, and it told me that "The new bootsector was successfully written." When I restarted the first time, it got to the Windows logo screen, but instead of being assaulted by the blue screen of death, it just hung there on the screen. The second time, the BSOD is restarted my machine. The third time, I got another disk error machine. I suppose it can't make up its mind as to how to best torture me.

Okay, sorry - as soon as I pressed "post reply", I noticed another message on my fourth restart: "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys" Ever since then, it continues to restart automatically.