xp home installation keeps restarting

elephantaman37

o.k. first it was the computer restarting everytime i got to the windows logon screen, i figured the easiest and quickest thing to do, after checking the hardware(have yet to swap out ram however). Started the repair reinstallation to salvage files and now the install gets to the actual install phase and right before or right after switching to the finalizing installation phase the computer restarts and shows the win xp home starting screen then goes to restarting installation.... then goes back to the installing phase of window, asks me to confirm the language after clicking next just starts the same cycle over again, and over again, and over again. Have tried researching the problem now several problems with windows itself restarting but not very many with actual installation proccess restarting. Can't even get into windows anymore without this starting, don't know where to go next. Any help is greatly appreciated.
-thanxs

Trogan

I'm not an expert but I guess these are the common questions someone is going to ask you.

1) Can you get into Safe Mode? Keep tapping F8 when your computer starts.

2) Run Memtest86+ and let it run for a few hours.

elephantaman37

Trogan_1000 wrote:

I'm not an expert but I guess these are the common questions someone is going to ask you.

1) Can you get into Safe Mode? Keep tapping F8 when your computer starts.

2) Run Memtest86+ and let it run for a few hours.

sorry, no can't get into windows safemode either gives me up pop up box which says windows xp setup cannot run under safemode, setup will restart now. then i only havethe option to click ok! lol but it's not ok jus jokin, horrible one hugh? and i don't think it's the memory cause right now that drive is in a completely different computer and still doing the same installation reloop. If I place the drive in the slave position, however, I am able to acess to the drive but in the master postion it continues to give me this same looping joint.
thanks for the any help in advance fellas, and yeah sorry for being vague.

profdlp

With the drive as a slave in the other computer, can you get your files off of it?

If so, you might find the easiest thing is to do the data recovery, then format the drive and start from scratch. It would be a good idea to run a full virus scan on it first, plus run the diagnostic test from the HD manufacturer.

What Trogan_1000 mentioned about Memtest is worth doing, too. Flaky memory could have caused the corruption on the drive while it was in the original computer, meaning you'll just be spinning your wheels to try and get this going again under any circumstances.

Good luck.

elephantaman37

profdlp wrote:

With the drive as a slave in the other computer, can you get your files off of it?

If so, you might find the easiest thing is to do the data recovery, then format the drive and start from scratch. It would be a good idea to run a full virus scan on it first, plus run the diagnostic test from the HD manufacturer.

What Trogan_1000 mentioned about Memtest is worth doing, too. Flaky memory could have caused the corruption on the drive while it was in the original computer, meaning you'll just be spinning your wheels to try and get this going again under any circumstances.

Good luck.

Thanks for the advice profdlp, ran the memtest the whole night and during my classes today got back about 2 and it says it's been runnin for about 17 hours, 40 something passed and 0 errors so my best guess is that it's still not the hardware itself. I will try the data recovery but I don't neccessarily know how to go about it never really had to since i was always able to fix my problems. Any help in this area would be great, at this point my brain is simply numb and i'm runnin out of ideas any more ideas on the installation relooping would be great as well thanxs so much for the responses fellas.

profdlp

I'd say you can be confident that your RAM is not the problem.

elephantaman37 wrote:

...I will try the data recovery but I don't neccessarily know how to go about it never really had to since i was always able to fix my problems...

Can you see the files on the troublesome drive? If so, just copy them over to the other computer. It's good insurance, even if you manage to get the other problem fixed without a format.

If not, let us know and we'll see what we can come up with.

phuschnickens

Try this maybe (maybe not):

Get a Windows XP installation disk, boot into the installation utility.
At some point it'll ask you if you want to go into the RECOVERY CONSOLE
Enter the recovery console.
The recover console looks like a DOS prompt but normal DOS commands fail.
I think you can type help for a list of commands.
The command you are looking for is "fixboot"
Type fixboot, hit enter
Whatever happens is quick, then you can type exit or quit (i think)
Then restart and I think it should work.
(so much for the confidence that initiated this post)

-Pete

elephantaman37

thanks, but unfortunately I've tried that already before as well.....i've run chkdsk fixboot rebuilt my registry and tried a few several other methods. I think that I have ultimately found an answer through a certain combination of rebuilding the registry hive and immediately restarting, booting from cd and running repair install again seems that several people on the web have had this problem and think it's only a hardware problem. If anyone has tested drive on several systems and know that it's not a hardware problem, like I did, then this method worked for me extremely well; Had to reactivate windows, but fortunately all my files and programs were in tact. IF this helps anyone let me know would love to get feedback!
And thanks so much for the help fellas this community is great, think i'll hang around and see if i can help anyone else.

Qeldroma

elephantaman37 wrote:

... I think that I have ultimately found an answer through a certain combination of rebuilding the registry hive and immediately restarting, booting from cd and running repair install again seems that several people on the web have had this problem and think it's only a hardware problem ...

Makes me wonder if this could be a new variant of MSBlast or something like that without the timer ....

alexdcd

Well i have had this problem once in the past. My problem was caused by a virus that bootstrapped into the hdd and boot.ino. This is very serious. Do not attempt use disk checkers etc because you may loose important documents. I fix and upgrade computers so i come across this a lot!. What You need to do is get accessn to another computer to extract your documents etc. if you are a consiectious backup geek then theres no need. Either use a usb to ide adapter or just install into a system as a slave device. Get into the folders needed, extract files and save them to disk. Once this is is done you will need to run windows setup and FORMAT the drive. You then need to install windows and copy your files back. BEFORE you reconnect to the internet again, install some antivirus and antispyware, but if you have no licenses, use windows service pack 2. this has adequate firewalls to prevent this happening again. any problems contact my help desk at [abcdef] i wont charge you anything!

Leonardo

Alex, the best support you can provide the Short-Media community is to provide your advice and assistance right here, at Short-Media. It is not necessary to direct the members to off-site support if you can provide the same service here. After you've established yourself as a loyal member, then perhaps the links to your email help desk and partially completed site might be appropriate. Thanks. We look forward to you being active here.

Leonardo
Super Moderator