On 8/22/2019 7:19 PM, pheasant16 wrote:
Puts the desktop picture up, but loads no icons and won't connect to
network.Â* Boots into safe mode just fine.

Still have the original retail XP disk when I built the box.

Took it to a computer store, they didn't ask about the disk,Â* but their
advice was too old get a new box.Â* They tried a couple ways to get it
loaded, but no luck.

Broke down and got a new Win 10 desktop and am satisfied with it as a
replacement, but would still like to salvage the old one if possible.

A week ago it told me I had 3 days to activate it or it would shut off,
so let it register online, and the nag screen went away.Â* 3 days later
it quit.

Hard drive failing or bad software?Â* No hardware changes made for many
years.

Didn't do a system restore as read that if done in safe mode any
previous dates may be lost.

Would it be possible to boot from the CD and overlay the program files
without formatting and starting from scratch.Â* Everything I've ever read
about repair installs makes a fresh install seem like the easiest way to
go.

Guess I could throw a new hard drive in and do a fresh install, but then
I've lost the data I'm hoping to just be able to access if needed. (safe
mode does that now, but need a winter project)

Also Cardfile isn't in Win10.Â* Found a program that will work in place
of it, dragged the .crd files from the old box to a USB drive, put it in
the newÂ* machine, and flash drive looks empty on the Win10 box.Â* Dug out
an old Win 7, and drive showed empty there also.Â* Put it back in the XP
box and shows up just fine.Â* FAT 32 is how it was formatted before use.

Thanks for any ideas you can share.Â* This should be good for a couple
days when the snow flies.
Download one of those Live Linux systems to a flash drive and see if the
system can boot/run from that.

If it does that would tend to rule out most motherboard and power supply
problems. Using the OS from the flash drive should allow you to view the
hard drive diagnostics and run tests as well.