Computer Just Keeps On Restarting

[hustler]

OK, here is the deal. I decided to do the Wipe of my hard drive on the US-DoD 5220.22M Setting (Don't ask me why but I just felt like it). It took a very LONG time like I expected. It finished fine with no errors or anything. So I decided to restart my computer. I closed everything and restarted. Now I can't get back in. Every time I turn it on it just keeps on restarting over and over, it doesn't even get to the Windows screen. I tried every option in the safe mode screen and it just does the same thing over and over. I switched out my RAM, took out all extra boards, everything, and nothing will work, that is why I am thinking it is something that Ace Utilities did.

I also turned off some programs from starting up when Windows starts before I did the wipe, however I don't think that has any effect because I can't even get to the Windows screen.

Is there something in my BIOS that was disables, or something like that??

I am at a loss.

Thanks

[jazzbodepew]

Greetings St***c
Do I understand that you used Ace Utilities to "Wipe the free space of your drive/partition with the "WIPE DELETED FILE DATA"(BUTTON?

Or did you use the "SECURELY DELETE FILES"(BUTTON)
To wipe your drive/partition?

I you used the "Securely Delete Files" to wipe your drive/partition then everthing is gone .This is a wiping tool and has completely wipedd everything in the partition..
If this is the case your machine cannot start cause it no longer has an operating system in place..

If you merely wiped the free space the problem may be fixable..

When you say you tried the options in the "Safe mode" screen;What exactly do you mean?
We need to know what is your Operating System(Windows98se,Windows ME,Windows XP etc)..

Meanwhile if you can enter the BIOS you could "DEFAULT" it to the original settings...

Tell us more about the situation if you can..

jazz..........

[hustler]

Thanks for your reply.

Here is what I did. I used the "Wipe the Deleted File Data" button, I have used it before on just the one or two swipe feature, but I figured I wanted to try out the DoD feature.

I still have an operating system in place, however it can find it. I changed the BIOS back to default. And now I get the error 'Invalid Boot.ini file booting from C:\windows\.

I am on Windows XP Pro.

I have done some research on the interent and I have read in numerous places that I need my XP cd to run the recovery console. However I am at school right now, my CD is at home, and I'm not going home for awhile, so I guess I am looking for a quick fix. And I am wondering why Ace Utilities did this to my computer?

Thanks,

Chris

[Aneesh]

To fix Invalid boot.ini,

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=330184

If you don't have a XP CD, then try the following.

Create a file with the following contents, name it boot.ini and place it on your Windows boot drive root ( In your case, C: drive )

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect


You can save this file on to a boot floppy disk, delete the existing/corrupted boot.ini if there is such a file, and copy this new file.
(If the file already exists, you may have to change its file attributes before deleting.)

I can't see how all this could have caused from Wiping free space

Let's see how it goes.

[jazzbodepew]

Greetings
I predict you will soon be fixed..
Now I am adding Aneeshs' good advice,to restore the boot.ini, to my folder..
I have seen aa proprietary WinXP version(Sony) loose its NTFS Loader.
Which I deduced,at the time, to be due to either ;
1. corruption of low-level format
2.Bad IDE cabling
or
3.Faulty Hard drive
Changing the hard drive fixed it..

I agree ,also, that it is difficult to imagine how wiping the free space could do this..Unless you have a Fat32 boot partiton and have ,somehow,changed(ie.reduced) the size of the F.A.T. clusters just before the "Free space wipe"..Thereby loosing a bit ,or more of the boot..

Meanwhile:
Next time you have your XP disks,I believe, you can set up the Command Consol so as to be available from the Floppy boot set...

Good Luck
Will be lookin forward to know howw it works out for you
jazz..............

[hustler]

I am getting a copy of an XP cd this afternoon. I will let you all know what happens.

Thanks For Everything.