Keeps rebooting

[t-dog]

I have my old computer that has win xp sp3 on it. I pulled the drive and scanned on my win 7 64bit unit with norton, averst and avg. and all is clear now and checked with malware bits.

But when I put the drive back in it boots and ask me if I want to go safe mode etc. and I have tried all ways but just pass the xp screen it will go and then boots over and over with no error messages or anything. I have saved all my data but I was hoping someone could tell me something to try with out having to format it.

 

[hang-the-9]

Do a full disk scan for errors (not checkdisk, a low level scan utility), check your BIOS for a disk check option. If not, this disk http://ultimatebootcd.com/ has several tools to check disks for errors.

Often an issue such as yours is caused by a failing hard drive and not a virus/spyware. Windows tries to load, gets to a bad section of the disk, and crashes. In these cases, it's best to get a new disk rather than try to fix the old one. A full format may be able to get the drive to working shape, but it will not fix the physical errors, and a drive with errors can lead to issues with it that you won't be able to repair eventually. Is your data/time worth the $50 that a new disk will cost?

 

[t-dog]

Ijust want to make sure I get all of my stuff off the unit. So can I ran a repair xp or install without wipping out saved work

 

[hang-the-9]

Yes you can do a repair install or just install XP in a separate directory without a format, but if the drive is bad, it won't do you any good, and the more you use it, the greater chance you have of it just dying on you totally.

If you want to get your data out safely, get a new drive, install Windows on that, and use the old one as a secondary drive to copy data and settings over.