I had a Norton update, Friday. It said must reboot to take effect. now or wait. I was busy so choose 12 hours. then 12 hours again. Finally I said restart. came back to computer, computer was stuck at the blinking cursor. I cannot even get to safe mode.
Tried the xp disc. I get to repair. choose windows system enter admin password. Does not reconise (reboot)
WHat else can I do? I tried dozens of helps from Google searches. HELP PLEASE
Thanks Quads, most were pull hard drives any perferials try chkdsk . check bios. reboot (which did not work) Nothing was changed in the hard drive config. Can't
Anti static gear, Yes! I rubbed my feet on the carpet touched the chassis, then proceeded with removal
I can smile and joke NOW
Is it called redundancy or Hoarding? I have an old dell dimensions 2100 opened it up, replaced the cd with the HDD in question. The dell found it as a new drive. I can get to ALL my files & folders. Happy? Yes; my last back up was the end 01/13
Next step, I disconnected the drives and installed the questionable drive in the first slot on the dell. It failed, blinking cursor as it did in my main tower.
Swapped one more time. It again found the drive and I can retrieve all my data.
So what ever the update was from Norton it fouled windows startup.
After the data transfers are complete and checked I will rebuild the drive and have Norton do the reinstall FIRST before I proceed with all other program installations.
"Anti static gear, Yes! I rubbed my feet on the carpet touched the chassis, then proceeded with removal "
That is not good practise, Not using anti static gear, I havr the mats straps and earthing cables, also without the proper gear, component manufactures then no longer honour any waranty.
Blinking White cursor on boot is a symptom of mainly one thing, I have repaired a few, due to corruption or Malware, where part of the infection is removed but the system still points to it..
Happens to me every time I restore an image into a new virtualPC.
I boot to a windows 98 boot disk (floppy disk made into an ISO actually)
and do a: fdisk /mbr
Note that this works only with XP and you cannot do it with Vista\7 because it needs a different boot sector.
Regardless of what the problem is, a Norton update does not touch the MBR of the hard drive.
Dave
edit- I forgot to mention it, but there is a rather well known problem with the XP recovery console not "taking" the admin password. It happens on preinstalled systems that were deployed using sysprep (the majority of OEM systems).
You have to use a XP disk that has SP 2 or 3 integrated into it to get it to take the correct password.
I do have a strap, that I attach to my arm that has an alligator clip that you attach to a grounded chassis.
As for the issue, it has to be Norton. it was the only new software update I had. the computer was PERFECTLY fine until the update. It was fine until NORTON said restart to make the necessary update.
"As for the issue, it has to be Norton. it was the only new software update I had. the computer was PERFECTLY fine until the update. It was fine until NORTON said restart to make the necessary update."
We won't know that it was due to the update as you did your own thing instead changing things, so will never know.
There is a way Norton could cause this but it is not the update that caused this, it is another reason", which Norton also completed at the same time during restart.
I had a Norton update, Friday. It said must reboot to take effect. now or wait. I was busy so choose 12 hours. then 12 hours again. Finally I said restart. came back to computer, computer was stuck at the blinking cursor. I cannot even get to safe mode.
Tried the xp disc. I get to repair. choose windows system enter admin password. Does not reconise (reboot)
WHat else can I do? I tried dozens of helps from Google searches. HELP PLEASE