Date: 05/19/07 (Computer Help)    Keywords: software, google

Hey everyone, I'm hoping you might be able to help with this problem my mom is having. When she starts her computer, she gets this error message:

"we apologize for the inconvenience but windows did not start successfully" and it goes on to say somethinga bout a change in hardware or software may have caused it. I googled it a bit, and it looks like a Norton Update could have possibly caused this, but otherwise everything (according to her and my sister, since I do not live there currently) was working perfectly fine earlier in the day.

I tried having them start in safe mode (or any of the other options that pop up), but nothing happens when they select the option to do so. I also tried to have her restart the computer with the factory DVD in the drive (And Insignia running Win XP Home), but it seems that is a one-way ticket to restoring the computer to the factory settings only, thereby wiping all of her data.

The only realistic option I can see at this point is to drive home with my computer, hook her HDD as secondary to mine, and get all her files backed up so I can wipe and restore it. Any suggested on how to fix this so that it doesn't have to come to that?

Thanks in advance!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/779688.html