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Today my computer decided not to start into Windows XP Home. I do not receive any error messages on the startup, but it hangs at the splash screen for my Hitachi Deskstar's Ontrack Dynamic Drive Overlay software. Normally, it would splash the Ontrack screen and then proceed directly to the Windows XP Home splash screen and then start. I ran a quick scan of the drive using Hitachi's diagnostic software and it appears to be fine. My BIOS indicates that the drive is there and everything.

Furthermore, I cannot locate my Windows XP Home installation disc. Will it be impossible to troubleshoot this without it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the forum. Can you get into windows thru Safe-Mode?

I don't think I can. In order to do that, you press F8 during startup correct? Sorry, I'm not very knowledgeable about these things.

Should be F8...

you may have to press repeatedly until it enters another screen with a "menu" of boot options. At the top should be 'safe mode'. Use the ARROW keys to the right side of your keyboard to scroll up/highlight safe mode. press enter.
should boot in safe --it will say SAFE MODE at the corners of the screen.
your screen will look "odd" in safe mode-- huge icons etc' this is because only the very basic settings are loaded in this mode.
To get back out of safe just reboot as normal

It won't enter into the menu to select Safe Mode or the other options.

Using the Arrow keys?
bios won't recognize the mouse-- it's useless.
Sometimes pressing Ctrl/Alt/Delete (this will start the boot over) will fix silly problems like this ( my rig does it every so often) Base driver for keyboard not loading --maybe.

Pressing F8 a bunch of times and using the arrow keys did nothing to get past the hanging Ontrack DDO splash screen. My computer is acting as if there is no OS basically. I think the problem is a little more severe than can be fixed through Windows Safe Mode.

I think it may have to do with boot.ini, although I can't be sure.