Computer won't boot up.

[Desertfox]

So I woke up this morning, come down, turn on the computer and come back 2 minutes later to find it on the windows installation screen. I am like wtf? and reboot. Sure enough, it takes me back to the same screen asking me if I want to repair windows etc. I try booting without the windows CD in the drive (left it in there from last time I reformatted) and it tells me I need to install an OS. Can I just run the repair to fix this? Did I lose everything? :/

I will post specs later when I am able to get back.

thanks.

[FuzzySquirrel]

What OS? If its Win7/Vista the Repair utility works pretty nicely, So I would try that first (might have to run it a few times). Also if you have multiple hard drives make sure its booting the one with windows first.

[Desertfox]

What OS? If its Win7/Vista the Repair utility works pretty nicely, So I would try that first (might have to run it a few times). Also if you have multiple hard drives make sure its booting the one with windows first.

Running windows xp, will try checking the hard-drives. didnt even think about that.

Nope; that didnt work.

[FuzzySquirrel]

10 things you can do when Windows XP won't boot

#10 looks like a pretty good option.

[Desertfox]

10 things you can do when Windows XP won't boot

#10 looks like a pretty good option.

it takes me to the screen where I make partitions etc, says nothing about another copy of XP :3

I am now also getting an NTLDR is missing when trying to boot from windows XP CD.

[FuzzySquirrel]

NTDLR is your Boot.ini

#5: Fix a corrupt Boot.ini

As the Windows XP operating system begins to load, the Ntldr program refers to the Boot.ini file to determine where the operating system files reside and which options to enable as the operating system continues to load. So if there's a problem rooted in the Boot.ini file, it can render Windows XP incapable of booting correctly.

If you suspect that Windows XP won't boot because Boot.ini has been corrupted, you can use the special Recovery Console version of the Bootcfg tool to fix it. Of course, you must first boot the system with the Windows XP CD and access the Recovery Console as described in #4.

To use the Bootcfg tool, from the Recovery Console command prompt, type

Bootcfg /parameter

Where /parameter is one of these required parameters:

* /Add--Scans the disk for all Windows installations and allows you to add any new ones to the Boot.ini file.
* /Scan--Scans the disk for all Windows installations.
* /List--Lists each entry in the Boot.ini file.
* /Default--Sets the default operating system as the main boot entry.
* /Rebuild--Completely re-creates the Boot.ini file. The user must confirm each step.
* /Redirect--Allows the boot operation to be redirected to a specific port when using the Headless Administration feature. The Redirect parameter takes two parameters of its own, [Port Baudrate ] | [UseBiosSettings].
* /Disableredirect--Disables the redirection.

[Desertfox]

NTDLR is your Boot.ini

I can't even get to that windows XP setup screen since this NTLDR message, no matter what I set it to boot from etc.

got it to the setup screen and into recovery console but no matter what way I do it, I cant get the NTLDR message to go away.