I decided to just forget about the 10 GB of irreplacable data on my HDD and wipe the fucker clean. Install a copy of Win XP Pro (yes, a legitmate copy...who'd a thunk?). TEN minutes after wrapping up the security updates and getting Zone Alarm setup...out of nowhere, reboot. Try starting Windows in standard mode, safe mode, last known good configuration...always the same result; reboots before the loading screen. I think I'm just going to say fuck it and install DOS 1.0 or something that nobody in their right mind would fuck with.
I had the exact same problem!!! advice, though... uh.. nope, my solution: install Slackware linux version 10.0, yea... cause windows is muy poopy.
you did windows updates, and THEN zonealarm? were you behind a hardware firewall? last i read, it takes about 10 minutes a brand new win xp [unpatched] becomes a slave computer. i'd have gone firewall before i even hooked it up to the internet.
I got a copy of 6.22 if ya want it! I'll even host the D/L for you guys only! You know who you are...
I'm behind a router on a host computer that's running a copy of Zone Alarm as well...I installed Zone Alarm first thing, and enabled the firewall that came with XP (haha, firewall...yeah). Seriously considered DOS, then I figured out my sex0r Audigy Live! card wouldn't be of any service. Meh, back to the drawing board.
yeah this happened to me too so many times in fact. advice: stay away from computers as much as possible and store important data on paper... computers scare me so much...
