Computer keep rebooting before being in Windows

[Zragnarok]

Last night, I tried to speed up my father's computer by cleaning it (software not hardware). My father is the kind of person who receive a lot of joke mails from friend, open them, go on the internet to website he doesn't really know and then call me to tell me his computer is fucked up.

I downloaded Adaware Anniversary Edition last night and started a full scan. After 45 min, it wasn't done. I then dragged the mouse by 1 inch and the screen went black and the computer rebooted. From there, it just rebooted over and over, as soon as it was about to enter windows, bang, black screen it was starting again. The HDD was also making a weird noise, something like searching for a second, then it stop for 2 second, then it start to search again then stop until the black screen.

If it was my computer, all I would do is Format C: but since it's my father's computer and he got all his links and stuff on the HDD, I don't want him to lose everything. I have bootable CD of Windows XP Home, I tried to do something with the repair option but I ended up in the recovery mode ( which is in DOS commands ) and I didn't know wf to do.

Is there a way to repair Windows without having to format everything ? Thanks

Specs :

AMD 1.2 ghz
RAM 512 mo
Windows XP Home edition (SP2)
Booting in safe mode, safe mode with prompt command, every kind of boot just lead to a reboot...

[Kriz]

Sometimes Windows will panic reboot due to critical data being on a bad sector - this sounds possible cause of the noises from your hard drive. Give Spinrite a go on the drive and see if it can fix it up such that you can full boot.

If that doesn't fully work, use that Windows CD to repair the installation. What you did was get into the Recovery console. What you want to do is instead of choosing to repair right away, say you want to install, and then the install CD will look for a Windows install already on the drive, and then you want to choose the second repair option. It's stupid but that is actually the repair you want, it will replace all your system files.

If SR and/or OS reinstall helps, I'd recommend upgrading to XP SP3, and going over the drive with MalwareBytes/ComboFix/Ccleaner. A machine that old is probably teeming with fun stuff...

[Isiolia]

IMO...

If at all possible, pull the drive and work on it in/with another computer (can get an IDE or SATA to USB adapter to facilitate this if necessary).

Do a disk check. If it's a filesystem error it should fix it. If the disk is failing, it'll probably become obvious.

Find some way to back up his data, preferably. If you can pull the drive, this should be easy. Otherwise, a PE disc or bootable Linux distro may work well, if you have or can get one.

Once that's done, you can figure if you want to continue trying to scan it with tools/repair windows/etc or just format it. IMO, formatting is the easiest way to be sure.

[Zragnarok]

Well I did a normal scandisk ( the one in windows ) and it told me I had to restart so he did. He scaned the drive and everything was fine. It's after that I installed Adaware and it failed on me.

You're right, it would help a lot to move it into another computer and scan it. I have an old computer which I never use, i'll probably try that if I can't make it boot.

It sucks though because we were about to buy a new PC for my father. I could always buy the new computer earlier than what I wanted and put the HDD in it as a storage one but I'd rather not put a 5+ years old HDD into a brand new computer.

Thanks for the answers :/

[Spekkio]

you could be getting a BSOD on bootup pushing you into the endless cycle of reboots. tap f8 on reboot like when you're trying to get into safe mode, but instead of safe mode, select disable reboot on error or w/e the exact text is. if you're getting a bluescreen you'll see it now, can take down the info and make sense of it. if that's not enough of a hint but it is bluescreening, you can try pulling the minidump off the system and dissecting it on another computer. by checking the stack at the time the system ate itself, you should be able to figure out what was causing the problem.

[bebeci]

I had a similar problem recently. After the windows logo, it would try and load the default profile, then follow an automatic reboot. I may (or may not have) heard my hdd making funny noises.
I have had an hdd go sour once, but it wasn't loud enough.

I went into safe mode (F8 at the right time) and then just copied my stuff to an external hdd. Reformat, and life went on.

gl guy.