Re: Improper Startup Menu Won't Go Away

"Jerry Criswell" wrote

I attempted to post this Oct 31 but it never showed up.

I am working on a PC where the user plulled the plug one day. Now, when it
starts up, it goes to that text start-up menu as you would expect. The one
that gives three choices of safe menu and one choice of start normally. No
matter which choice you pick, the machine reboots and goes back to the
menu. How do I fix this? Is a Windows reinstall called for?

First make sure all important data is backed up because running chkdsk can cause data corruption in some cases. Then boot from a Windows XP installation CD and take the first R for recovery. That will go into the recovery console. Type in the windows installation number, normal 1, then type in the password for the built in Administrator account. In could be blank so if you don't know the password just hit enter or tab to see if that gets you in. If not then ask the computer owner for the password assigned to the Administrator account.

Once in the recovery console at the command prompt type
chkdsk /p

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654

It will take some time to run. See if that fixes things.

.