What To Do When Windows Won't Boot

When Windows fails to boot it is normally caused
by you installing a program or device and it has
caused a conflict with one or more other programs.
This will no doubt give you plenty of heartache if
you're not certain which program caused Windows
to not boot up.

If you recently installed a program or application
and know where it was installed,you may be in
much better shape as for as correcting the error.
Here are common ways to correct the problem
of your computer not completely booting up or
not booting up at all.

If your computer will not boot-up at all,hopefully
you have made a good emergency boot disk.
You can always make a windows startup disk by
creating one from another computer running
Windows 98 or Me.Perform the following if your
computer won't Boot-Up At All.

FIRST......Put your boot floppy disk in the floppy
drive and turn on the PC.On some computers,
you may have to access the bios and select the
Boot priority to your A: drive.Save any changes
and select "Start Computer without CDROM
support" and press Enter.Once you are at the
A prompt,type dir c: and press enter.

If your programs and other files are present,try
restoring your system Registry by following the
steps below.This may repair Windows,the Config.
Sys and autoexec.bat files to where the PC may
boot up normally.When the files are present,its
a good indication of a good hard drive.

SECOND......To correct the problem of your computer
not booting up,type in "fdisk /mbr" and press Enter
to restore your master boot record.Type "Scandisk C:"
to check the hard drive for errors that have occurred.
You can also type "Sys C:" to hopefully restore files
needed to boot up your computer.

THIRD......If the above procedures fail to repair
your computer,you can repeat the first part of step
one above and select "Start Computer With CDROM
Support" re-install Windows.

Making A Windows XP Bootable Floppy
Windows XP users should create a boot disk now by
placing a formatted blank diskette in the A: drive, open
Windows Explorer to the C:,select Tools,Folder Options
,show Hidden files and and folders,then View Tab.
Now you uncheck "Hide Protected Operating System
Files (recommended).You will see a warning and click
Yes and click OK.Copy the files ntldr,ntdetect.com and
boot.ini onto the disk.Remove the disk and label it the
Windows XP Boot Disk.

After making your boot disk,recheck "Hide protected
operating system files and folders (recommended)" in
the Folder Options dialog box.
To use the disk when Windows XP won't boot,place
the disk in the drive,and unto re-booting,the computer,
Windows simply bypass the basic boot files on the hard
drive and continue to boot up.

If The PC Won't Boot Pass Windows

FIRST......If your Operating System is Windows
Millennium,turn on the computer and immediately
press and hold down the CTRL key.Once the
startup options appear,release the CTRL key.
Select Safe Mode and press Enter.You are now
in Windows limited version.If you know what
caused your computer not to boot,you can now
either change or delete that program.

SECOND....Repair your Registry by selecting
Start,Run and typing "scanregw /fix" and press
enter.This will fix any damage done to the Registry.
You can also restore your registry which replaces
your current registry with an earlier copy that was
backed up by your computer.Click on Start,Run
and type "scanregw /restore and press Enter.

To repair your Windows 98 Registry,hold down
the CTRL key as you start the PC and select
"Command Prompt Only".Type "scanreg /fix" and
press Enter and "scanreg/restore" to restore a
previousely saved copy of the Registry.

If you have Windows XP,press F8 after rebooting
the PC should Windows freeze while booting up.
You can select "Last Known Good Configuration"
after rebooting to allow the computer to boot the
last backed up files.And you can choose "Safe
Mode" to remove any files you know caused the
operating system to hang up.

Be prepared when your operating fails to boot.
It would be a great idea to go over this article
a few times and print it.Make yourself s notebook
and place this and all related articles there.

If your computer fails to boot or begins to become
unstable,you can refer to these articles to make
corrections that are needed.Learn these steps
from your television set with the PC Super Pack.

Be sure to note any changes you make to your
Registry and if you're not sure,its best to find
a friend that's pc savvy first.Above all,be certain
you back up your registry before making
any changes and know how to restore as well.