WinXP Pro

Hi, have you tried going into safe mode? also you could look into obtaining a winternals boot cd that boots a version of xp into ram and allows you to diagnose your pc. sorry dude. when you get in in safe mode, do a rollback.

A question:

After using your XP floppy-boot installer, how did you
intend on repairing or reinstalling your OS, if necessary?
The first thing the Installer will do is check for an OS
installation disk.

BTW, all the floppy "boot" set does is install the Installer.
Then it needs the OS installation media to actually install
Windows on your HD.

The XP "boot disk" set was never meant to be used as a
general-purpose repair utility. The only "boot" disk is
disk #1. The rest just contain basic generic drivers and
enough of the Windows kernel to start an installation,
which then requires the install media.

The floppy set was meant for those who did not have
optical drives which could boot the computer, or
motherboards which could not address optical block
devices as boot devices. This assumed that the user had
install media either on the HD, or in a network location.

My suggestion:
1) Buy a copy of XP Pro.
2) Repost here when you have it installed.

Donald McDaniel

Find a friend with an OEM Copy of Win XP Pro. You will also need the CD Key Code. Boot from the Win XP Pro disk and select install XP when you get the first menu. Eventually the menu will ask you if you want to repair the current version of Windows. Select "R" and follow prompts.

You might have fried some hardware with the unplug. If so -- even another copy of XP won't help -- after doing the install, you'll get the same problem. Try pulling everything except RAM and video and see if it boots. Then put the hardware in one by one until the find the faulty card.

Find a copy of ERD commander, boot it and do a system restore
or you will have to do a repair install like someone else suggested.
Or try the "Ultimate Boot Cd" that has a copy of ERD on it I think
I doubt you fried hardware, sounds more like OS corruption since it was patching.

As you are saying the system is not booting after the update installation failed due to power down.
I suggest you to go for OS booting Options, which can be accessed by pressing F5 or F8 after the BIOS settings and(or) before the XP starting load. There you will see a number of OS booting options to be selected from.
Description of Safe Boot options
? Safe Mode (SAFEBOOT_OPTION=Minimal): This option uses a minimal set of device drivers and services to start Windows.
? Safe Mode with Networking (SAFEBOOT_OPTION=Network): This option uses a minimal set of device drivers and services to start Windows together with the drivers that you must have to load networking.
? Safe Mode with Command Prompt (SAFEBOOT_OPTION=Minimal(AlternateShell)): This option is the same as Safe mode, except that Cmd.exe starts instead of Windows Explorer.
? Enable VGA Mode: This option starts Windows in 640 x 480 mode by using the current video driver (not Vga.sys). This mode is useful if the display is configured for a setting that the monitor cannot display.

Note Safe mode and Safe mode with Networking load the Vga.sys driver instead.
? Last Known Good Configuration: This option starts Windows by using the previous good configuration.
? Directory Service Restore Mode: This mode is valid only for Windows-based domain controllers. This mode performs a directory service repair.
? Debugging Mode: This option turns on debug mode in Windows. Debugging information can be sent across a serial cable to another computer that is running a debugger. This mode is configured to use COM2.
? Enable Boot Logging: This option turns on logging when the computer is started with any of the Safe Boot options except Last Known Good Configuration. The Boot Logging text is recorded in the Ntbtlog.txt file in the %SystemRoot% folder.
? Starts Windows Normally: This option starts Windows in its normal mode.
? Reboot: This option restarts the computer.
? Return to OS Choices Menu: On a computer that is configured to starting to more than one operating system, this option returns to the Boot menu.
............
I suggest here you prefer Last Known Good Configuration.
Ok If you tried all these things and not getting booted. Never hesistate contact me for the futhur queries.
srikanth.P
M.Tech.CSE.
srikanth99099@rediffmail.com

your pc comes with recovery discs? or have a partition with the recovery program? you have to check this first. If you want to recover your info i recomend to use knoppix or DSL (damn small linux 50 mb distro) you can boot the pc and mount the HD with windows browse the folders and if you are in a network transfer to another pc the info. DSL is light but a little more complicate than knoppix.If you not have important info in the pc change OS to linux there are many distros I can recomend pclinuxos 2007 is a live cd and you can make all the above with it.

Sorry for my english, I hope this can help you.

Living near the Gulf coast, I have to unplug my computer because of storms, and, at times, afterwards, XP is unable to load. When this happens, I turn off the computer, wait several minutes, unplug it, wait several more minutes, plug it back in, turn it on, and Windows loads normally. A friend told me that it has something to do with letting the electricity drain out before unplugging it.

okay i ahve read what evryone has said and here's what i think. firstly your pc is new and the xp installation is legit.
so you can borrow an xp cd and use the cd key located somewhere on the pc case. you should also consider using this downtime to sign up for free ubuntu linux cds from www.ubuntu.com they will send you free live cds of linux for you and your friends. a live cd allows you to boot from ram like the winternals i mentioned.
also consider borrowing an xp cd and just running the repair console. run chkdsk.
like soe one else said, you probably lost you os or specifically your bootloader.
you may also need to check your hardware for damage cause normally it is the harddrive that gets hammered first in case of power surges.
lastly, do as someone else said and flash the cmos. if you have no motherboard manual, the easiest way is to completely unplug your pc and them open and remove the motherboard battery for about 5mins.
hope something here works

Restart windows,right when it starts to load, start tapping the F8 key till it shows the boot menu, choose.. previous configuration.
If that does not work,do the same thing but choose safe mode then do a system restore.

Few years back, had a power failure in the neighbourhood. When over, my system wouldn't boot. Don't know what goodies you have with your system, but basically you only need a keyboard, monitor and processor to come up. Try detaching EVERYTHING else (mouse, printer, webcam, speakers, etc.). Then power the system on - if it still won't come up at ALL, then I'd suggest a repair shop.

how you're maaging to post and from where.

Dawg

Did any of these suggestions help?