XP wont boot

Hi guys, new in here and in panic.

Went to my sis for a couple of weeks and found out, the last day, that here boyfriend had a problem with his computer.
That problem was AV Security Suite and after an hour of google search I managed to get rid of if with Malwarebytes and everything seemed to work smoothly...
Till I had to restart their computer.
It did not want to boot into windows and kept rebooting all over.
Its a HP Pavilion running on XP (SP Unknown), the installation dvd is missing (5 yo...)
As it happened the last day I wasnt able to download and burn a Recovery cd (as I did not have any cds).
They know nothing about computers and Ill try to find them a solution.
They live in sweden and Im heading back to spain this morning (wish me luck...)
I was able to get into F10, something like recovery console, but didnt dare to go further cause they have some important files they dont wanna loose.

Any help, appreciated.

Thanx!!!

Hi gate7nico, and welcome to BleepingComputer.

Don't do a System Recovery, you will lose all of the data, it restores the computer to the way it came from the factory.

Can you get into the Advanced boot options where you have the choice of Safe Mode or Last Known Good Configuration?

Edited by dc3, 05 October 2010 - 07:03 PM.

Yes I can and I tried all options but none of them let me boot.
I need to save those files and was thinking of a HDD docking station for that, but as "they" dont have any computer knowledge...
Cant see them taking a computer apart ;)

Try doing the Last Known Good Configuration.

What happens when you try to boot the system? Does it flash a blue screen and then restart? When you go into safe mode, how far does it go?

Well, when I try to boot Im getting as far as to the XP logo and thats it, then it reboots.
When I try in safe mode, it reboots just after all "those" letters show... you probably know what I mean
What do you refer to by "blue screen" if its the BSOD then not, as it is a HP invent though, it used to show the blue HP Invent screen which I dissabled (dont ask me why...)

Press F8 before you see the Windows XP logo, you will get a boot options menu. Select "Disable auto restart on error" then select "Start Windows Normaly". It should show you the error on the blue screen.

I did and I got the error message 0x000003E8.
I google search it and it seems to be Norton related.
When booting their computer (when it used to work) I was getting some Norton errors which I didnt write down...

Can you post the entire error message?

I wish I could, but as it only happened once and never again I cant and I cant remember what it was saying. Annoying...
I wonder if it would be possible to boot with some kind of a "Live cd", like Linux is using.
Been searching the net for some kind of startup cd or recovery cd, but they all seem "weird"...

I wonder if it would be possible to boot with some kind of a "Live cd", like Linux is using.

YES - You can use a Linux live CD to boot into this computer, and access the files that you need to recover
and save those files to another device ( Flash drive - CD - DVD - External HD )

Then you can do the F10 system restore or do a reinstall of the Windows OS

IF you do not have a Linux Live CD you can download one and burn it to a CD as an ISO disc image

TO be able to boot from the Live CD, you will have to go into the BIOS and set the 1st boot device to CD or DVD ( which ever is in the computer)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Below is a screen shot of Linux looking into my WIndows folders

Edited by Ramchu, 09 October 2010 - 07:11 AM.

Thanx Ramchu, I think and hope this will solve my problem.

Is there any Linux Live cd you would recommend?

Thanx Ramchu, I think and hope this will solve my problem.

Is there any Linux Live cd you would recommend?

PCLinuxOS -- Download page here : http://www.pclinuxos.com/?page_id=180

Ubuntu -- Download page here : http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

If you are burning the CD on a Windows computer I recommend InfraRecorder as tha burning software ( It's FREE )
InfraRecorder -- Download page here : http://infrarecorder.org/?page_id=5

Then you can do the F10 system restore or do a reinstall of the Windows OS.

I would try doing a repair installation before I would do a reinstall of Windows. If you can do a repair installation you will not lose any of your data or non-Windows applications like you will with a reinstall.

I thought it wasnt possible to do a repair installation without the original CD.