I have a feeling this is a problem no one knows how to solve, but I will still ask.

I mistakenly pressed the on/off button, therefore forcefully shutting it down, while my computer was getting ready to hibernate and now it won't start up.

When I boot it, it first flashes a menu with Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition and Windows Recovery Console. If I select the Recovery Console I get another error.

If I wait a couple seconds I get a screen in which I get a lot of text that says that Windows can't start up, because of a shut down while it was booting up

It also gives me these options:

start windows in safe mode

start windows in safe mode with networking

start windows in safe mode with command prompt

start Windows normally

it also gives me the option to just wait and it will start up normally

Unfortunately, none of these actually work with me because they just send me back to the same menu.

If this is an un-fixable problem, I'm not afraid of reinstalling Windows. Though I'm not sure how I can do it.

I use Windows XP and my computer was made by HP.

Have you put any new hardware in lately?

And so it just goes in one big loop really or does it give an error code of some sort for not booting?

This is amazing!! The original poster saved me a bunch of writing.
I have an emachine and had serious problems with hanging up so I decided to restore XP with the restore discs. When I restarted I got the same screen as original poster with same results (just keeps going back to that screen no matter which option I choose). I brought my PC with me to my Dad's house for help and am using the emachines generic modem and mouse on my Dad's emachine.

John

Do you have the XP disk and do you want to do a clean install of XP then look here IHATEMYCOMPUTER.
XP Clean Install

No, I don't have XP disc, I have emachines Restore Discs (3).

BUT, OOPS I found on the screen "Last known good configuration", when I choose it I got error "missing or corrupted file \Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM

don't know how I'd take care of this as the only thing I can DO is get restore discs to function. (I have restored 4 or 5 times now).

John

natchezjohn
You have hijacked another posters thread, could you please institute a new thread regarding your issue's.
Doing so alleviates confusion as to the original post.
Thank You.

I bought my computer at Best Buy and they had Windows preinstalled on my computer, all I had to do is setup some prefs. They did not provide me with any Windows CDs or DVDs