Windows Startup Problems

Trouble Shooting When Windows

Will Not Start

List of possible problems

1. Computer is dead, nothing ever seen on screen (Different Problem, look elsewhere!)
2. Windows starts to boot up, but then computer reboots
3. Windows starts to boot up, but then receive an error message (Possibly about corrupt registry hive)

When I install Windows, I install the Windows Recovery Console also. It can prevent the need for finding the Windows CD when Windows will not start. But since I probably didn't setup your computer, Recovery Console probably isn't installed.

Will it boot in Safe Mode?

One of the first things someone will ask if you go for help is "Will it boot in Safe Mode"? If it does, sometimes just retrying a normal boot after safe mode will work. If you don't know about safe mode then look here: Windows Safe Mode - How & Why to Use this great tool.

Below I have a number of links to Microsoft's website. They are extremely well written and useful articles, so I won't reproduce them here.

What I will mention is that some problems will go away if you can boot to the Windows Recovery Console and run the following command on whatever hard drive Windows is installed on:

Chkdsk /P

or

Chkdsk /R

The /P is what I normally use. The /R will do a more extensive check and recovery which can take quite some time.

If there is a simple drive error, and preferably your drive is formatted with the NTFS file system, a "Check Disk" command can solve your problem.

If not, take a look at some of the following articles, depending on your exact problem:

For more information about System Restore, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: