Windows did not start successfully

Question

I receive the following message when I try to start Windows XP:

"We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this. If you computer stopped responding, restarted unexpectedly, or was automatically shut down to protect your files and folders, choose Last Known Good Configuration to revert to the most recent settings that worked.

If a previous startup attempt was interrupted due to a power failure or because the Power or Reset button was pressed, or if you aren't sure what caused the problem, choose Start Windows Normally.

(these are the choices:)

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt
Last Known Good Configuration
Start Windows Normally"

Regardless of the option I choose, the same screen appears time after time. I have tried to repair Windows XP through the Recovery Console on the CD and I have tried a repair installation. I have rebuild my boot.ini. The results continue to be the same. I have now installed Windows XP on another partition on a second hard drive (L) in my computer and I am able to boot to the second installation. However, all of my programs and settings from the original installation are not loaded.

I have 2 questions: does anybody have any new ideas how to recover/repair my original Windows XP? Is there any way in which I can move the second installation of Windows XP from my L drive to my C drive and retain my C drive settings and programs?

Thank you.

russ100 · Answer

Hi - I get the same error. I have also had various others included; a corrupt registry which it tries to delete bad indexes, 0x00...07,  0x0000...0c , unkown hard error,  occasionally it starts and I have tried restoring to the first restore point which didnt do anything. I was going to do a dell pc restore but the ctrl + F11 thing doesnt seem to be working. Anyway to check if this utility should be installed ? A critical system process, C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe, failed with status code c0000005. The machine must now be restarted.   The system is a Dimension 8400.

dunedin · Answer

I`ve not got much to offer by way of help, but here it is

Remove any new hardware that might have been installed, unplug any external devices like printer, scanner, camera, etc... and then try it.
In fact unplug everything not necessary including cards (but NOT video card)
See if it will boot up.

If that doesn`t help, keep everything unplugged as before and go back into the Recovery Console and at the command prompt type
chkdsk /r (Note there is a space before / )
ENTER

The above or a Repair of XP are the only solutions I know for your problem.

Sorry

boppo · Answer

dells repair link. <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

Windows General

Windows did not start successfully

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