Help - XP won't boot past XP splash screen

[Primus462]

My laptop won't boot past the XP Logo screen. The bar just keeps moving, like it's loading, but it never goes past the screen. It seems to have happened after the laptop went into hibernation and wouldn't recover. I ran the included diagnostic utilites and it did return some errors when testing the hard drive. Could a bad hard drive be causing the boot problem? Any ideas?

Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[pscowboy]

Run a Repair install.

Pop in the XP - restart - boot from the cd - hit Enter at the first repair screen - hit r at the second repair screen. On subsequent restarts, do not boot from the cd.

 

[Primus462]

I've tried that, but the repair halts too.

 

[pscowboy]

Boot sector virus.

Look around for my posts the last week or so for the debug routine. After you perform that, you will be able to re-install.

 

[hubbardt]

Does it work in Safe mode ?
(restart laptop and press F8 key every second or so until boot menu option appears)

 

[Primus462]

Actually, every time I power it on, it goes to the screen that says Windows did not boot properly last time and asks which mode I want to boot in. Whether I select safe or normal, it still locks up.

 

[Zyxthior]

Could be a boot sector virus...or it could be a harddive failure.

Find the brand of your harddrive and download the diagnostic tools from the Companies website and create a boot CD to test your harddrive to rule that out.

For example: I have a Western Digital harddrive so I use WD's DataLifeGuard Tools to run checks on my harddrives.