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I have XP Media Center.

I cannot get to the point where I can enter safe mode. It's as if it won't access the C drive boot sector. No errors, just a blinking cursor in the lefthand corner.

I believe this is a direct result from an invalid read on my DVD drive. I inserted a disc and it locked up the DVD drive. When I rebooted, XP won't start. This is the 3rd time this has happened, all after a DVD issue.

I have an old HD with XP as my D drive. I switched it in the BIOS just so I can boot into something. The 1st time I did a defrag and it resolved the problem. The second time a defrag wouldn't fix it. I tried all kinds of utilities (Scandisc, boot utilities) with no success. I ended up re-installing windows. Now, a week later, it's happened again.

It's as if XP knows that it has an open task to read the DVD, and since that locked up, it doesn't want to do anything else, even after a reboot.

Even when the DVD locked up the 3rd time, I backed up some info before shutting down because I knew it would not boot up the next time. I don't understand how the DVD could prevent windows from booting up, but 3 times is more than a coincidence.

Thanks in advance.

Hi there and welcome to PCHF

What happens if you boot the PC with the DVD drive dis-connected?

I disconnected the DVD drive, and it still won't boot.

I have my old C drive and my new C drive (The bad one) both connected. Through the BIOS I can force it to boot under the old C drive, which is how I can hit the internet. I can see everytyhing on my new C drive (Now as a D drive), but it won't boot.

Utilities say the boot sector is fine.