What is the verbatim error message?
Try booting into Safe Mode by repeatedly tapping the
F8 key after your BIOS POST but before Windows starts.
What did you try in the Recovery Console?
Did Zone Alarm ever work on this computer? You might want to stop it in Safe Mode for the time being.
start/run msconfig | startup > disable all
Also: look in your
Event viewer: rt. click
My Computer then click
Manage then
Event Viewer.
Or:
Administrative Tools/Event Viewer or
Start/Run/ eventvwr
Open the
system as well as the
application tabs & look for
X errors. Click error line for details.
Post back the
source &
event id &
Description especially of errors that seem to coincide with this issue.
Also check the
Information lines that might coincide with this issue.
How to view and manage event logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
Also a Repair Install of XP will save your data and settings including programs except Windows Updates if you need to reinstall again:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm