Blue screen, can't complete boot. HELP!

Question

I've had an Inspiron 8600 for about 18 months, now running Windows XP Home SP2.   I've managed to generate the dreaded blue screen for no obvious reason a few days ago, with the error message:       Registry_Error Stop: 0x00000051 (0x00000001, 0xE1808428, 0x01453104, 0x000001D6)   Now I can't find a way out. After the BIOS loads, I get the standard Windows did not start successfully screen. Start Windows Normally leads after the Windows bar to a blank screen (power still on). Last Known Good Configuration does the same. Safe Mode loads a series of drivers and then gives the blue screen with original error message. Full diagnostics test via F12 during BIOS load shows no issues. Booting from the original XP Home SP1 CD doesn't help as the software spots a previously installed version and so back to the blue screen again. Starting the Recovery Console doesn't work - can only log onto Windows installation 1 and that's straight back to the blue screen! Interrupting the setup with F6 works, but I have no floppy disc to load the Dell Registry Recovery Utility (should I even be trying to do this as it is posted for Windows Server 2003?!?). How do I get out of this boot loop?

ejn63 · Answer

If there's data on the drive you need that isn't backed up start here:

Buy a notebook to desktop drive cable or an external USB 2.0/firewire 2.5" drive enclosure, attach the drive to a working desktop or notebook and copy your data for backup.

DO NOT PROCEED WITHOUT A BACKUP - DOING SO COULD BE FATAL TO YOUR DATA.

Return the drive to the notebook. Boot, press F12 and run the extended diagnostics on the drive. If the drive passes, skip the next step.

If the drive fails and you're under warranty, call Dell, report the error and they'll ship you a new drive.

If the drive fails and you're out of warranty, bin it and replace it - any notebook 2.5" drive will work.

If the drive passes, you can continue to try a repair (which fails more often than it succeeds) or bite the bullet and reinstall everything from scratch.

Recovery usually fails to restore the registry; in about 70-80% of all cases, it's a hardware fault that causes the problem.

bhughes923 · Answer

I would try the Windows recovery first. Put the XP CD in the drive and change the boot sequence in your BIOS to boot from CD 1st. Then you basically reinstall windows over the top of the existing install. It takes a long time, but you won't destroy data.

Oldievent · Answer

Many, many thanks for the advice.   Bought a laptop drive enclosure (£8.99). Popped in my laptop hard drive. Transferred the data to my desktop as a USB external drive. Reformatted hard drive from the desktop. Popped it back in the laptop. Re-installed everything and then transferred back all my data. Everything now works perfectly.   Great!!!

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Blue screen, can't complete boot. HELP!

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