"Something will eventually die in your computer causing it to fail in some way."

It can happen to anyone, at anytime. You start your computer, it makes its usual noises and then Windows fails to boot. This guide will help if you are ever faced with this situation. Read it, memorize it and keep it handy because you never know when it could become very useful.

Determine the Problem

The first thing to do is to try and find out what went wrong. It often helps to think back and try to remember if anything has changed since you last used the computer. Did you install or uninstall any programs? Did you change any settings? Have you moved your computer around recently? The majority of the time it is a software issue that is preventing Windows from booting, so just to be sure we will examine both possible causes and solutions.

Is it the Hardware?

It gets over looked by everyone, but if your getting a blank screen, before you do anything else check your hardware is all right. It may just be your monitor or power supply has died or someone might have just accidentally pulled the power cable out. Examine your system to make sure that it really is a hardware problem, as hardware does eventually fail.

If it is a hardware issue the most common cause will be the hard drive mainly because it is normally the first to die before any other components. Do not however automatically think that it is the hard drive as they do not usually suddenly stop working. Often you will receive errors on the drive, or hear problems with the drive motor before it goes. In either case you should already know it and started to back up all your important data and information before it does die.

Another common possibility is that if you have moved your computer around the house or taken it elsewhere, some of your cards may have come loose from their slots. Open your PC and simply check that all your PCI and AGP cards are still secure in their slots and no cables have come loose. Cards that are not secure can often cause boot problems.

Alternatively some computers are configured to shut down if the heat sink fan fails – protecting the CPU from over heating. Not all systems support this, and you may find that it may have failed to boot up simply because your system may have overheated already.

Maybe the Software?

The most common causes for boot failures in regards to software are the loss of crucial boot and driver files. This can come about due to viruses, ageing systems or someone has accidentally deleted files or modified some settings on your machine. Whatever the problem may be your first step should be to boot up in Safe Mode and see if you can get the system booting again. Although Safe Mode boots up without any special hardware and only loads default, basic drivers, it allows you to check for viruses, uninstall or install drivers, enable or disable services and hopefully repair your system.

Restoring Files

If you have managed to boot into Safe Mode your best bet will be to use 'System Restore' and try your last restore point. Using this method however requires that you have previously created a restore point, but in some cases windows automatically creates a restore point, so you may be in luck if you have not.

For those who can not even boot into Safe Mode there are two options available. The most effective is to use the Restore mode, which is on the Windows installation CD. The repair mode will attempt to re-install all windows files, damaged or not, thereby providing you with a working system. By doing this you can also be certain that any damaged, viruses infected or lost files will be replaced by originals. To start the repair boot your windows install CD, choose your windows installation and then select repair.

Still in the Dark

The last resort, if all else fails is a clean install, formatting the windows partition and starting from scratch, a clean slate. The added advantage of a clean install is that your system will be more responsive after you get rid of all the junk that just sits in your folders. If you are able to enter Safe Mode you will be able to back up any of your valuable data to another partition or off the computer all together. Also remember to defragment your drive afterwards. This will reduce the chance of file system problems taking place.

Something will eventually die in your computer causing it to fail in some way. The best option is to regularly back up essential and valuable data. Even if you can not recover from the failure, you will still have saved your work.