So Windows won't boot...

[Fereydoon]

So, I'm sure my windows (XP) installation is borked one way or another. (Or my computer which I'm sure of [old piece of crap etc.]) and it won't load.

It'll hit that windows splash screen with the faux-loading bar. But it'll stay there forever. If I boot in safe mode it loads the drivers and then stops doing anything.

It did this a few days ago and some google-fu and moving stuff around while on my ubuntu installation somehow fixed it. Haven't restarted since.

So earlier my computer BSoD's stating atidvag issues. Not the first time this has happened. But now I can't get back into windows. :\ So I thought I'd use an XP iso to checkdisk etc. Except my disc drive hasn't worked in ages. (No idea why.) So I wanted to know 1. if anyone has any idea wtf happened to my stupid XP installation. or 2. if I can install XP to a flash drive like I can with ubuntu. I googled it a bit but I can't find a way to install it from linux. If I could get into windows I could make a bootable drive but alas.

So, in other words, halp!

(I know I need a new computer. :\ I hate this piece of junk.)

[Cephius]

Make a CD on another computer? Borrow one from a friend? Or... http://wiki.eeeuser.com/windowsxpusb

[Fereydoon]

Disc drive doesn't work. :\ So even if I had a cd it'd be no use. And I found that guide before but it only works via windows, which I can't get into. D: And there's no other computer in the house.

[Bloodfire]

You cannot make a bootable drive with Linux, as far as I know. You could try wine to do it, but your better off going to a friend's, relative's, or maybe school's PC and making a bootable USB there.

OR!! try this: Take your linux machine, and grab Virtualbox of the net. Install it, and then grab an ISO of windows, don't care how. Install windows on the Virtuabox and afterwards make your bootable USB in the virtual machine.

Orrrrrr.. buy a new CD-ROM drive....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827118039 -- SATA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151175 -- IDE
Both are stupid cheap.

Your BSoD atidvag issues was probably a driver issue.
Other issues are probably caused by maleware, or your PC was inudated with errors.

Would like some system specs if you have plz too.

[Fereydoon]

System specs:

Motherboard:
CPU Type AMD Sempron, 2000 MHz (10 x 200) 3400+
Motherboard Name MSI RS480M2 (MS-7093) (3 PCI, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset ATI Radeon Xpress 200, AMD Hammer
System Memory 1472 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (09/30/05)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)


Display:
Video Adapter ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 Series (256 MB)
Video Adapter ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 Series (256 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon Xpress 200 (RS480)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter ATI SB400 - AC'97 Audio Controller


Storage:
IDE Controller Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
IDE Controller Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Disk Drive WDC WD1600BB-22GUC0 (149 GB, IDE)
Disk Drive Generic USB SD Reader USB Device
Disk Drive Generic USB MS Reader USB Device
Disk Drive Generic USB SM Reader USB Device
Disk Drive Generic USB CF Reader USB Device
SMART Hard Disks Status OK



So I got it to work somehow. I had swapped back to windows to check on it, didn't go through so went back to Linux and my gpu must've exploded. So I turned it off for a little while turned it back on and it worked. Did a chkdisk and rebooted again and it wouldn't load once more. Turned it off, waited, back on and it worked.

So either my GPU is dying or my fan sucks. I doubt it's a ventilation issue as there's nothing surrounding my tower.

[Eanae]

This happened to me. It ended up being a dieing piece of hardware which was preventing my system from loading. Check your connections, take anythhing extra like network cards out one by one to see if it'll boot and narrow down if it is a hardware issue.