windows won't start

[Guest Austin]

our family computer with windows XP is not starting. it goes to the screen

where you can choose the start up mode, and anything we select leads to a

glimpse of the windows logo like normal, and then the computer restarts.

something we've read says this may be due to a full hard drive, which is very

possible. We've tried booting up with the disk and setting up windows that

way, but it says the partition is full. we have a usb hard drive but we

unplugged it. would plugging it back in and freeing up space on the

computer's hard drive solve the problem? if so, how do we do that, since we

can't get into windows? maybe we could set up windows on the external hard

drive and get in to windows that way - any suggestions?

[Guest Malke]

Re: windows won't start

 

Austin wrote:

> our family computer with windows XP is not starting. it goes to the screen

> where you can choose the start up mode, and anything we select leads to a

> glimpse of the windows logo like normal, and then the computer restarts.

> something we've read says this may be due to a full hard drive, which is

> very possible. We've tried booting up with the disk and setting up windows

> that way, but it says the partition is full. we have a usb hard drive but

> we unplugged it. would plugging it back in and freeing up space on the

> computer's hard drive solve the problem? if so, how do we do that, since

> we can't get into windows? maybe we could set up windows on the external

> hard drive and get in to windows that way - any suggestions?

 

Pull the drive and attach it to a working XP machine. If the issue is that

you filled your drive up, copy the data over to another hard drive from

within the working XP install and delete from the original drive. The USB

hard drive is not going to be useful to you except as a place to store the

data if your working XP box doesn't have a big enough hard drive.

 

Please be aware that there are many reasons for Windows not starting and

although you are assuming that the full hard drive is the reason, that may

very well not be so (or it may be one of several factors).

 

Standard disclaimer: I can't see and test your computer myself, so these are

just suggestions based on many years of being a professional computer tech;

suggestions based on what you've written. You should not take my

suggestions as a definitive diagnosis. If you can't do the work yourself

(and there is no shame in admitting this isn't your cup of tea), take the

machine to a professional computer repair shop (not your local equivalent

of BigComputerStore/GeekSquad).

 

Malke

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