[catch_da_freak]

My machine hangs at the point before booting where the blue bars of Windows XP keep rolling just before showing the desktop. I'm suspecting OS files to be messed up. I don't mind re-installing XP but losing my data is as good as losing my job. Any options how to extract the data as well as softwares installed? I have a recovery cd though but recovery console wasn't installed. Thanks for the help!!!

[ComStar Computers]

You are right, that's a fouled OS. But, luckily enough you are able to preform a non destructive repair. Here's what you need to do...1. Boot from your recovery CD2. Press ENTER as if you were installing a fresh copy of the os.3. Next, press F8 when prompted by the EULA agreement.4. Now you should be greeted with an installation menu, Usually it has an option to install a fresh version of windows, Create a partition, & delete a partition. However, if you do NOT see R-Repair. STOP AND TURN OFF THE PC. A non destructive repair is not available.5. Reboot (from CD) (RECOVERY CONSOLE)6. At the first menu, select R for recovery console.7. Select your Windows installation version (Usually #1)8. Enter in the Administrator password.9. Type the following commands followed by 10. FIXMBR (select Yes)11. FIXBOOT (select Yes)12. CHKDSK /R (This step will take about an hour and will appear to have locked up, just let it go. If after 3 hours the system has not shown any progress, reboot and repeat steps 5-12.If your disk does NOT have the recovery console, then I suggest going to a neighbors PC, and download the Hirens Boot CD from www.hirens.info and burn a copy of the ISO cd. Take it to your PC and boot from it. Select Hard Disk tools and run HDD REGENERATOR. This will take about 6 years to complete (just kidding) but it will recover your drive. If for some reason it can not. Then you can access the FILE MANAGERS and use the Volkov Commander with NTFS support to off-let your data to a flash drive or Zip drive.If for some reason, you get an error reading your hard drive, odds are the file system has become corrupt and we need to correct it, give me a shout for that indepth support. Also try the HDD Regenerator to fix that issue.