Start-up error.

[ownage overdose]

UPDATE: The light above the on button usually glows green, it is now glowing orange. This may help.

Help would be much appreciated.
The computer is quite old, I have a bad habit of turning it off by holding down the power button [ closing the apps on this piece of garbage is not fun ].
Anyway when I turn it on it everything is normal until the part just before where the windows logo and the loading bar thing comes up.

It says this, "Windows did not start successfully... etc."
It then has a few options,
Start windows normally, last good configuration etc.
No matter what I choose, after I have clicked it it starts up as normal but restarts its-self as the windows xp loading sign comes up.

How do I fix this?

~ Thank you in advance.

 

[Govind]

Repartition, reformat, and reinstall.

 

[ownage overdose]

How do I do this?
Ive done a Google search but to no prevail.

N.B I don't have the windows XP disks.

 

[cp]

This isn't possible without another OS Disk.

 

[ownage overdose]

This isn't possible without another OS Disk.

I have a mac osx leopard disk.
Will that do the job?

 

[wtp]

I have a mac osx leopard disk.
Will that do the job?

Not unless your running leopard.

If you tried the safe modes and still cant get on. Your probable not going to be able to do anything without the instillation CD. Once you get the CD you can either repair it (wont deleted everything) or reinstall the OS (which will delete everything).

I would try this though:
Take out the hard drive from that computer and put it in the computer your using now. Go to my computer, right click that hard drive, properties, tools, error checking, click both the boxes, and let it run. This might fix it but it might not work if its unable to recover it.

 

[ownage overdose]

Not unless your running leopard.

If you tried the safe modes and still cant get on. Your probable not going to be able to do anything without the instillation CD. Once you get the CD you can either repair it (wont deleted everything) or reinstall the OS (which will delete everything).

I would try this though:
Take out the hard drive from that computer and put it in the computer your using now. Go to my computer, right click that hard drive, properties, tools, error checking, click both the boxes, and let it run. This might fix it but it might not work if its unable to recover it.

Thanks heaps for your input,
I am however on a mac laptop.
The computer with the problem is mums.

It doesn't work on safe mode.
The computer is quite old and is infected with spyware etc.
SO, I we will probably get a new one unless we find the os disks.

Thankyou everyone for your help so far. Much appretiated.
Feel free to post other thoughts / ideas.

 

[gravitas]

Wait.. I'm confused. Were you running Windows on the Mac Laptop?

 

[ownage overdose]

No.
It was only relevant to WTP's post.

 

[Nullware]

Well, since you can't get into Windows your best chance is doing stuff before it gets to loading Windows and fails.

I'd recommend making a boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/) and when you restart your computer configure the BIOS settings to boot from CD first rather than HDD (hard drive) then reboot again.

Using the boot CD, you can run 3 anti-virus/malware scanners which might remove some critical problems with the PC and also there are a few hard drive diagnostic and repair tools. Some of the hard drive tools are manufacturer specific so if you know the brand of your HDD and use the correct one that might improve its chances of helping.

I'm not sure how knowledgeable you are with computers so if this seems too complicated and you'd like it explained better, just contact me on MSN sometime.