Freeze after reloading XP

[powertech]

I hope someone may be able to help me. I recently had to reload XP as I had an unlicensed installation. Not mine I'm afraid. I have a new genuine copy now which I installed over the old one, but it gave some of the old files and folders and stopped working during when I was online.

I did a boot from the disk and formatted the Hard drive and then followed the instructions for installing Windows. When it was finished it said it would restart, but after the first screen when it checked the memory it went onto the black screen and the options to load Windows Normally, safe mode etc, but will not move off that screen.

I have tried all sorts of options but nothing happens. I am getting stuck. I can't even get the Windows disk to reboot.

Please any help would be appreciated. Ian

[DookieToo]

I ran into this problem once, unfortunately was never able to find a fix. If it's the same problem, the BIOS itself is corrupted. You could try flashing it if you can get BIOS upgrades for it. I couldn't on the old laptop I was trying to repair, it was WAY outdated. It would however boot from a linux disk (I used Knoppix) no problem, and I retrieved the person's data from it at least. The only other option I could find was to use an EEPROM, which was hardly worth it on that old POS.

Hopefully it's not that drastic, but it sounds very similar. You might also try an app that will wipe out & restore the MFT (Master File Table), but only if nothing else works.

Also try Googling MSDos Recovery Console. It may save you without too much grief. You should be able to access it if you can get as far as reformatting from a boot disk.