Re: Desktop with no icons or start menu

Mark,
Thanks again for your really fast reply. My son will be home this afternoon
and I will go give this a shot on his computer. I will keep you posted.
Have a great day!

"Mark L. Ferguson" wrote:

Yes, Dell Recovery CD's are complete XP setup disks. You will get recovery
Console, and a/or Repair setup, as needed.

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Mark L. Ferguson
.

"Lori" <Lori@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2669C9CA-1C43-451D-891B-8774D3195071@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thank you, Mark, for the quick reply. I just want to confirm, you are
saying
to do this from the Dell Recovery CD? I can only figure that's what
you're
referring to. Don't want to take anything for granted, though. I
appreciate
your help.

Lori

"Mark L. Ferguson" wrote:

Best guess is some simple hard drive damage due to the moving around. I
would run chkdsk.

Boot to setup CD, press 'r' for repair.
At that prompt, enter:
CHKDSK /R

It's likely this will fix it, but if not, you reboot to CD and this time
press ENTER to start setup. It will find the installed system, and offer
to
'Repair' it.

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"Lori" <Lori@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4A41EFC1-0BF8-4DA4-8ABC-8BA805AAEAB3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
We moved my son last weekend and when we plugged in and set up his
computer,
it boots at a snail's pace and only goes as far as the desktop page
with
no
icons, no ability to access the start menu, virtually unusable. When
he
disassembled it, he admitted to just unplugging it rather than turning
it
off
properly.

How can I fix this, if possible? I can't even get into safe mode
without
it
freezing. I do have a recovery XP disc (Dell), so should I try that by
putting the boot sequence into the CD drive first? I feel so sorry for
him
as he really needs his computer. It is an older Dell, but was working
before
the move.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

.