My home computer keep rebooting itself and only very rarely gets
through to the XP stage.  I want to reinstall XP Pro but also save my
Outlook files, particularly as they contain many photographs.

The computer supplier, Multivision, went bust.  A friend has run a
diagnostic and said the hardware is fine.  Can you help me?

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Request for Question Clarification by livioflores-ga on 25 May 2004 08:21 PDT

May be you don't need to reinstall Windows XP, please let us know with
more detail what is happening in your computer, when does it reboot,
how it happens, what error messages appears if any, etc.

Read carefully the following two pages, may be them lead to a solution:
"Windows XP logon screen does not appear and the computer continuously restarts":
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q310/3/96.asp&NoWebContent=1

"How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP":
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=307654


Please let me know how this advice works. If this solve your problem I
can post this comment in the answer box to claim the prize. If not I
will continue the research.

Regards.
livioflores-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by livioflores-ga on 25 May 2004 09:29 PDT

Here is a direct link to the "Windows XP logon screen does not appear
and the computer continuously restarts" page:
http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q310/3/96.asp&NoWebContent=1

Choose Outlook Settings,there mail seetings there data files and see
what folder is used to save your files.
usually its C:\Documents and Settings\[your username]\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\
Youcan copy files from that folder to any other then after
reinstalling copy it back.Btw i'm not sure if reinstalling win deletes
your mail.

if you reinstall windows oagain using the repair unttliy on the win xp
pro disk you will not lose your emails.

boot from the CD rom with your XP pro disk and choose reinstall.
follow the onscreen instrucitons and bobs your uncle.

Hi,

First of all you haven't pasted here the error which you face while
starting XP. But if you don't like to go into troubleshooting you can
reinstall XP but not in the same directory choose a different one and
by doing this you can have the earlier setting save and you can also
get your Outlook data.
When new XP is installed and you configure outlook direct the path
where your earlier setting was. If you using outlook express you can
direct path, I better tell you that Microsoft Outlook client is much
better than Outlook express.

Cheers!!
Sanjay

Dear KCH,

An accurate solution can not be provided to you, because there are too
many unknown parameters.  I am not convinced that your system does not
have a failing hardware device, and I apologize upfront as I am not
intentionally questioning the expertise of your friends ability to
diagnois the hardware components within your system. Here's the logic,
you indicated only rarely does your system get through to the XP stage
... the fact that you can at times load Windows would indicate to me
that Windows is not corrupted, but that a hardware device or software
program/utility/application is configured improperly for Windows or a
hardware device has or is failing or a program/utility/application is
now corrupted and is creating a severe conflicts with the Windows
Operating System?

The first step is backup any critical data ASAP, then eliminate all
non essential hardware devices to see if this allows Windows to boot
successfully.
There are many articles at Microsoft that may help you solve this
issue. The URL below will load the Microsoft Knowledgebase, which is
an excellent resource for troubleshooting Microsoft products and
obtaining this self help articles for their products.

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowto

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Sincerely ..... Hard Drive

Hi,

I suggested a solution before too but I think you haven't gone through
that.. so here is another one solution which could be a lil pricey too
.. go for another disk(if you wish to else please follow the earlier
solution of mine) and load OS on that HDD once it is done, club the
earlier and new one by making New HDD as master and old one as slave.
Configure you Outlook express or Microsoft outlook and you can avail
all the files and mail data.

Cheers!!!
Sanjay