I used Partition Magic 8.0 to do dual booting - Windows XP Home Edition & Red Hat Linux 8.0 Professional Edition.

I downloaded a MPEG file from Kazaa & opened the file without scanning with my Norton Anti Virus which I usually did. Later, when I switched on my PC I received this message.:

"We apologize for the inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this. If your computer stopped responding, restarted unexpectedly, or was automatically shut down to protect your files & folders, choose Last Known Good Configuration to revert to the most recent settings that works. If a previous start up attempt was interrupted due to a power failure or because the Power or Reset button was pressed, or if you aren't sure what caused the problem, choose Start Windows Normally.

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode Command Prompt
Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)
Start Windows Normally. "


I tried every option but the box keeps on looping between Red Hat Linux Grub loader & Win XP Home Edition. After the Win XP logo there is a long message in the blue screen which I could not read as it appeared in a split second. All I can see is some hexadecimal numbers. I could not gain access to my Win XP. I have to opt for Red Hat Linux to get into my PC.

I do not want to call Dell technical support as I installed Linux without their recommendation. The most they could do is to ask me to reformat my hard disk & reinstall my Win XP again. I don't want to do that as there are many important files in my Win XP. Furthermore, I have to spend a few days to reinstall all the softwares like Macromedia softwares, Visual Studio, etc .

I hope someone out there could help me as I really regret trying out Red Hat Linux because I do not know what to do. I am using Red Hat Linux now to type this because my Win XP is not working.

Thank you in advance.