Laptop Stalls at Windows Welcome Screen
I have a laptop running windows XP home, when I turn it on, it gets to the welcome screen and then doesnt do anything else, any help is greatly appreciated!
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Sounds like you need to repair your OS. Try using the CDs that came from your manufacturer, if any, to repair Windows. Just put in a recovery disk, turn on the computer, and search for a repair option if you get one.
Just avoid anything that mentions formating a disk until you have backed up important data.
Anything out of the ordinary happen the last time you remember it working? Did you install any new software?
Heartbeateaj, you might try Safe Mode, too, if you haven't done that already.
Tap F8 rapidly when your computer is turning on. Select "Safe mode with networking." If you can get to a windows desktop there, please post back to this thread and we'll get you pointed in the right direction.
No nothing out of the ordinary happened last time I was using it, I just went to turn it on the other day and it stalled at the welcome screen.Thanks again!
I cant find my disks, I think they got lost in a recent move.
How can I transfer some of the files off that laptop and onto another laptop/ or desktop? Does the malfunctioning laptop have to be working correctly before data transfer? Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it!
Start: <b>HERE</b>
Otherwise to get the data off in the mean time, you have plenty of options...but none of these are easy to do.
First is to get something like Knoppix linux where you can boot in to an OS off of a CD. Next is to use a external hard drive and copy over everything you think is important.
Remember, you are not going to be able to keep your programs if you reinstall Windows. You will need to reinstall programs with your CDs also, that is if you reinstall Windows.
So try to backup things like documents, pictures, movies, etc.
Something that would help right now is a boot CD known as Hiren's boot cd, but you have to get that off a torrent site most likely, and it requires a good amount of nerd skill to use....
If I were you I would just do this. Get an external hard drive enclosure and take the hard drive out of your computer. Then put it in the external. Hook the external up to whatever computer you are using now, and get all the data you need.
Once you have your data you will have no problem getting a WinXP Home cd if you ask enough friends to borrow one. Then you can reformat and reinstall windows, and all problems will dissipate in to released energy and radiate through the universe as background noise to be forgotten.
Just make sure you get an external enclosure for small hard drives if you have a laptop.
I also got an "Installation failed" notification during installation, during the installing windows step
You can do all sorts of things then.
I'd start with Chkdsk.
Fixmbr next?
It might not hurt to run the test from the hard drive manufacturer. An error found by chkdsk could mean physical problems with the drive.
chkdsk /r running now, very slow, going on 1 hour
The fact that chkdsk was taking so long on a (probably smallish) laptop drive indicates that the drive is having serious problems. If you're lucky, it's a software problem and can be sorted out. If not, the drive is on the way out.
Run the manufacturers test first; there's no sense in running around in circles trying to fix a dying drive. If it passes both tests we'll move on to something else.