Cant boot laptop, stuck on Press F11 to start Recovery Screen

[cap223]

Trying to start my computer and it gets to the screen where it gives me 2 seconds to press F11 to start recovery. But after 2 seconds or pressing F11 or any key, another line appears saying the same thing "Press F11 to start recovery". Can't get past this point and start Windows. Hard drive is recognized in another computer as well as in BIOS. How do I fix this?

 

[cap223]

I may have to look for it. I have another Windows XP and Windows 7 disc. Neither installation setup worked.

 

[aford10]

Make sure the drive is connected securely. Ive seen laptop hard drives that like to slide around and disconnect themselves.

Check the BIOS (f8 on startup) to make sure the hard drive is the 1st boot device, and turn off any halt on missing keyboard or mouse.

 

[cap223]

thanks nicolatesla,
I found the ORIGINAL OS disk and this time it gave me the option of pressing "R" to start a fresh install. I went through the whole windows setup and its all working. My concern is that it did not do this when I put a different XP CD in or a NEW Windows 7 disc. Any ideas out there?

My next step is to take this HDD out and install a 320GB that I have and install W7 on there. Hope it works.

 

[aford10]

Windows 7 pro and ultimate have a virtual xp mode and can run XP programs.

 

[cap223]

thanks aford10.. i didn't know there was virtual xp mode.. i'll try it