In the middle of downloading updates for window's xp I shut down my laptop. When turning it on now it will not get pass greeting screen then the compaq screen. You can hear a popping sound within it but want go forward. any suggestions.
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If the hard drive was doing full access / reading and writing and you just shut it if, you more than likely threw the heads out of alignment and now need a new hard drive.
If it is a metal popping or clicking sound, this is most likely what has happened. It causes the reader to get out of alignment and / or cause bad sectors on the portion of the drive it was accessing.
Restart your computer. Press and tap the F8 key during the Ram count. When the Windows XP Start Up menu appears, choose Command prompt. Type Scandisk. This should tell you the conditon of your hard disk drive and whether any damage has been sustained during your abbrupt shutdown.
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It want Start..