Hi all,
I usually turn off my computer and switch off the main line when I'm
done with it. I have a Dell running Windows XP. I've run through all
the checks of genuine and have got all the latest software updates
through the update feature etc. etc.
Yesterday while it was shutting down, out of sheer impatience, I turned
off the main switch before the shutdown process was completed. I've
done it a few times before and had no real problems. This time though
it was different. Today I tried to turn on my computer and I got the
usual black screen with the microsoft logo, and then saw the blue
screen that said Welcome, and thats it..... The boot process never
went further than that. I could move the mouse but after a while the
mouse too froze.
By the looks of it I feel I've corrupted the XP install on the hard
drive. I do have an XP installer CD and was able to boot from the disk,
but then I was taken the to C:\Windows directory and was only able to
run a select few commands, i.e. I wasnt able to start the Graphical
Interface. Instead I got the DOS prompt. From there I ran the chkdsk
and bootcfg commands and everything checked out fine. However still
when I tried booting from the hard drive it doesnt go beyond the
Welcome screen.
So I feel I might have to re-install the Operating System. My question
is, can I get away with just installing the operating system and it NOT
destroying my data files ? I would hate very much to loose the data on
my hard drive. Are there any other solutions that I could try to get my
computer working back as normal apart from an XP re-install ?
