Boot loop on XP help

[sa226]

Hello all, I figure there are some computer wizzes on here that may be able to help me.

I was just minding my own buisness doin computer stuff and I was installing "convertxtodvd" when the computer just automatically restarted and now it is in a boot loop and I can't even boot into safe mode.

The only thing i have been able to do is disable the "auto restart upon system crash"

After doing this I get the blue screen that says

"IRQ_LESS_THAN_EQUAL"

Plus a stop error at the bottom

I have done some googling and there is a lot of vague stuff out there.

So far I have put in different RAM to see if it was a RAM error, to no avail.

I have alot of valuable stuff on that thing and would hate to have to wipe the hardrive....of course i'm in the middle of backing the stuff up.

I'm about to remove a bunch of the hardware and see how that works.

Also it is a HP\Compaq so it didn't come with a boot CD

I am just hoping someone on here may be able to help before I take more drastic measures.

Thanks

[Traditional_Ale]

Buy a new hard drive for your laptop ($80) and an external chassis for the one that is currently in the computer ($20). Install windows etc etc etc to the new HD and have the old one in the external chassis to plug-in and recover the files you need.

[sa226]

Thanks for the reply,

I actually have 2 computers. Laptop with vista (what i'm on right now...its fine) and my older desktop with XP that I use as the base for my home media network....the desktop is the one with the problems.

So could I just buy a harddrive enclosure and throw the desktop harddrive into it, then plug it into my laptop? And do file transfer that way?

As an update after unplugging everything except keyboard. I tried to reboot again and I get a new error message...

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt"

<windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
please reinstall a copy of the above file

[Traditional_Ale]

Yeah man! Go get the external chassis for the desktop HD, get your backups done to the laptop, then killdisk that HD and reinstall windows etc etc etc.

[Cliche]

Originally Posted by sa226

Thanks for the reply,

I actually have 2 computers. Laptop with vista (what i'm on right now...its fine) and my older desktop with XP that I use as the base for my home media network....the desktop is the one with the problems.

So could I just buy a harddrive enclosure and throw the desktop harddrive into it, then plug it into my laptop? And do file transfer that way?

As an update after unplugging everything except keyboard. I tried to reboot again and I get a new error message...

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt"

<windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
please reinstall a copy of the above file

Yes, you can just toss the existing drive into an enclosure and transfer everything, depending on how much space you have on your laptop.

Also to fix that would require either being able to chkdsk your system or just reinstalling windows.

Looks like your hdd had a problem with the file system and now certain parts are corrupt.

[sa226]

Thanks for the reply's

I bought the enclosure and ive got her hooked up and transfering.

Heres an interesting question

Because this was an hp desktop instead of coming with a recovery disk it comes with a recovery partition. So would I be able to do a system restore to an earlier point in windows on said harddrive from my laptop via the USB harddrive enclosure?

[Rathji]

If you do a system restore to any given point, you might not be sure that the problem will not return.

Best bet is to use your install key with a copy of XP ( borrow a legit copy from a friend, ideally) and just do a clean install. You might need to call MS and get them to activate it if the SP are slightly different, but every time I have had to do that it has been no problem. Just make sure you are using the same version as the key is for ( ie Home, Pro).