Hi! Ok I'm sorry if there might be another thread somewhere but I wasn't sure.

My mother has an HP Laptop and one night, she went to shut it off. Well she thought it was but it was put in hibernate because she held down the power button. When we went to turn it back on, it boots up but Windows doesn't start. Instead, it gives you the OS menu screen. EG "Run Windows Normally, Last Known Good Configuration, Safemode, etc, etc." Ok, so we'd choose any of those options hoping to get us back to Windows. Instead of continuing after you make a choice, it keeps rebooting itself and that menu screen just keeps coming back. So unfortunately, the only way I can shut it off is to hold down the button I know it goes off. I realize that's even worse for it but I don't know what to do.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Hey there mate, do you happen to have a windows XP CD?

I do yes. I've been trying to boot it from there but then it asks to choose a partion and it wants to reformat it. About 5 partions come up so I have no idea which to choose or if it's a good idea to reformat it.

Ok, well formatting probably isn't the best idea, I was thinking of a repair install which will repair everything but leave all of your files intact.

Is it possible that you could take a picture when it is showing the partitions or type out what it says about each partition?

Thanks

-Lebowski

hi well I took the best picture I could. hope it helps

Hmm that is kind of odd. I think something is definitely corrupted as it's not recognizing the partition type.

I think the best way to go from here provided you know that files will be lost would be to format the first partition and install windows on that.

Hope this helps

-Lebowski

haha well...sorta... now you're positive reformatting would be the only way? I mean, I will do it if I have to. I just need to be sure.