My wife's desktop has windows xp on a 1TB seagate hard drive. Suddenly it entered on a state of that black screen that has some options to choose from. But when it is there, the mouse and keyboard do not work and when the time is up it does not run the option is highlighted (Start normal). So it hangs. I tried to run the windows cd to try the recovery mode. But as the keyboard stays inoperative, it does not work either. I swapped the hard drive to other desktop and it is the same. Even clearing CMOS it does not work. I tested this hard drive on a hdd dock and it it's fine. I also tried it on a USB port but it keeps on a boot up looping. Does anybody has a clue of what is going on?

Does the Desktop have a PS/2 port? Perhaps a PS/2 keyboard there would work.

All warnings, advice against and general disbelief someone is still running winXP aside...

put disk in another computer as secondary hard drive. If it does work, either take a disk image or copy off files. This should be your priority if yo need files, not trying to get PC to start up.

Personally, if I got files, I would bin the Seagate. I NEVER reuse a disk after it has issues. Not for OS, not for data, not for temp storage.. nothing.

Please state how you ascertained the "disk is fine". If this is true, with winXP better to get your files, use diskpart to resetup your drive. eg, boot with a PE disk or do it as secondary drive.. CLEAN, them make partition then format. or wipe it at win setup.

Also, being a winxp box, I assume hardware is old. You will start to run into issues such as caps on the motherboard bulging, or in the power supply, RAM failures amongst some of them.

depending on hardware, win10 would be a much better option with a ssd as boot drive and other as storage if you need it

Why is it that people always blame everything wrong in a computer to a virus ?

As stated before, try with a PS/2 keyboard/mouse.

Also, if you have more computers, just backup the important data then format/reinstall the operating system. Easier and faster than trying to fix whatever is wrong with the os installation.

Also, if you feel difficulties fixing the problem, maybe you should take the computer to a repair technician.

because they:
- don't believe they could have done anything wrong
- don't understand windows / filesystems / boot records sometimes just crap themselves
- don't understand the virus/malware landscape these days - malware will be more likely to ask you for money, or be very silent.
- use XP (in this case in all likelihood they have several virii)

almost no malware would make a computer hang like that. Malware authors either want money (you will see a ransom note), mad props for cool virus code (less likely these days, and you would see evidence of the virus), or user information (which is hard to get with a hung PC).

Sure there are some disk killer malware, but rare.

XP is easy to get user data and re-install.

I used a ps/2 keyboard and it worked but whatever option I choose it hangs. I run Bart PE, keyboard and mouse just fine, and explored the drive. Could see folders, files, read and write. No problem. I guess it is probably corrupted OS. I know I can backup files and reinstall OS but I'd like to know what is causing it to hang. The easiest way is to backup files and reinstall OS but the cool thing is to find the root cause and fix it.

Well, the root cause is, 99.999% , spyware or misuse of the computer ( not shutting it down correctly, clicking in whichever link pops up in the browser, same for emails, too much time spend on facebook, etc, etc etc. ) .

Really : you can spend some weeks diagnosing what went wrong, or you can fix the machine in a day. If nobody needs to use the computer then okay, take it to the examining table and make it into a research project.

The correct procedure is to copy the data to other disk, then format/reinstall.

If you like risks, run chkdsk, see if it improves. Also clear temp folders . Try to boot in Modo de Segurança, see it it works. Try to go back to a previous restore point. If any of this just destroys your data, well, you have backups, isn´t it ?


Just received a computer where the customer husband seems to having ran a factory recovery in the machine and now they need the invoice system and spreadsheets that were in the computer...

@rogfanther


I did it. It di not worked.



Didn't work either. Whatever option I choose from that black screen available, it doesn't work.

It is 99.99% a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting. I have three options:
1) backup everything and reinstall OS
2) Copy the restore snapshot manually and do a lot of copy and paste. (it could work)
3) Install windows 7 in update option to keep config and files and programs.

I am about to work with the third option in 32bits as winxp is 32 also.

The better option would then be copy files in the other computer and then to install a clean windows 7.

not copying files FIRST has been the regret of many, many people.

you do NOT KNOW what is wrong yet (likely never will). Why risk it?

advice: backup first. install win 7. copy files back. KEEP A COPY OF FILES in case the disk is actually faulty.

dont assume the disk is ok.

+1

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Yes. Just in case backup the important files.

To fix the problem is likely to be easy.

First try the system restore function and go back a week or so.

Or you can manually replace the sam software config system entries in the registry using a copy from one of the restore points in the 'Software Distribution Folder'. Google it for xp if you don't know how.

Or as its XP people forget that it is easy to do a repair installation.
So boot from your XP install cd.
When you get the option choose 'upgrade'.
If all goes well all the files, folders, user name etc. will all be intact and you only have to install the updates and maybe reinstall the antivirus.

What I have done:

went through system volume information and looked for the restore folder using ultimate live cd. Copied the files sam, software, etc and replaced those at windows/system32/config. Rebooted the system and still the same situation. attempted to use windows xp cd to updated and there's no option for that. Only install or restore in a cmd prompt. Tried to install windows 7 as update option but windows xp should be running for that, and not an option. So, as I had an empty drive (D) I installed windows 7, clean mode. rebooted system and to my surprise it worked but at the booting screen keyboard and mouse didn't work until windows had started up. I Can see, at the booting screen the two options to choose from: windows xp and windows 7 but cannot choose because of the keyboard issue not working till windows 7 starts up. On the booting screen, windows 7 is highlighted and when time is up it starts up. This is really weird! A PS/2 keyboard just works fine at the booting screen. If it was a USB issue, it would not work at all. This is so fu...weird! Now I have two issues: one is windows xp as said before and now is keyboard and mouse at booting screen. Damn it!

Since you now can boot to windows 7, copy the files that are important ( if any ) from the xp to the win7 disk.

Them disconnect the windows 7 disk from the computer, restore bios to default configuration, then reinstall windows xp it that is what she wants, After that, restore the files to the computer.

Before installing windows 7, I had restored BIOS to default and it didn't work. I have copied the files she wants to D drive but it is on the same hard drive, second partition. If I reinstall windows xp, I am going to have issue at booting. I can lose dual boot.

You realise you are still at risk of losing your files?

you need to back them up. It doesnt sound 100% a disk problem, but 1 keystroke wrong, wrong choice of install partition or something and *pooof* bye bye files

I know from experience it is not fun to tell a wife you have lost files. Not fun at all.

Well, the hard driver test softwares report it as in good health. I tested it with seagate recovery suite and it passed the test and smart table is ok. All green. I will try it with a new (zero Km) hd just to make sure if it is hd issue or motherboard issue.

You are making things worse/more complicated than needed.

You already said you have another computer. Copy the important files to its hdd.

You said that with the usb keyboard you can get into bios, and it also works after windows boots. That would rule out problems with the usb ports.

Check if there is an option enabled in bios for legacy usb or something like that.

Using a PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse, boot and reinstall windows ( XP, if she prefers it ) in the old hard disk. Format the disk, forget about trying to upgrade an already failed installation.

Then restore data.

If she can stay without the computer for a log time just so you are running experiments, them maybe she doesn´t need/like that computer so much, and maybe she would like a new computer, like a MacBook for example.

I have to disagree with installing XP again, sorry but it is just asking for trouble. Agree with everything else though. Win 7 is only a little better. Unless PC will never connect to the internet.

what CPU is it? Core2 Duo at a guess.. this will run win10 fine with an SSD.
if i3 or i5, then better.
If you want your wife to be happy, buy an SSD, install win10 and she will think she has a new PC.
if money is an issue, even a 120GB boot drive and your new HDD with 0kn (0hrs?) on it as a second drive would be good.

I said when in boot up moment USB keyboard and mouse are blocked and I cannot use them to highlight what OS to chose from. But when time is up windows 7 starts up because on the option it is already highlighted, keyboard and mouse are released (turn back to work on). Why only on boot up? That's weird!


If I can remember, there's an option (enable/disable) USB support.



You kidding me! Macbook. Don't like Mac devices. They're so restrictive and so much expansive that it's not worthwhile.
What I'm going to do is buying a brand new hd and install a clean dual boot win7 and XP.