Can you reformat a laptop with out a CDROM drive?

[Guest]

I couldn't find any help topics on this issue so I thought I'd seek help from
you. My mother has an HP laptop with Windows XP as the operating system. She
has recently learned that some how her CD ROM drive has files that either
became corrupt or were accidently deleted. We have tried reinstalling the CD
ROM drivers from the HP website but this hasn't solved the issue. We were
told that reformatting the pc and reinstalling Windows XP should solve the
problem and restore the missing/corrupt CD ROM files which make the drive
operable. However, her laptop start up discs are CD ROM's and can not be run
on the PC since the drive doesn't work. Is there another way for her to
reformat the PC? Possibly with floppy discs or via Microsoft downloads? I'm
determined to help her with this because she's on the verge of taking her
laptop to a mall kiosk for reapairs if I can't get it fixed for her and I
know that won't be good. lol! Thanks for your time. -K. Walker

 

[acana007]

don't reinstall theres no need boot into safe mode and do a system
restore

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I couldn't find any help topics on this issue so I thought I'd seek help from
you. My mother has an HP laptop with Windows XP as the operating system. She
has recently learned that some how her CD ROM drive has files that either
became corrupt or were accidently deleted. We have tried reinstalling the CD
ROM drivers from the HP website but this hasn't solved the issue. We were
told that reformatting the pc and reinstalling Windows XP should solve the
problem and restore the missing/corrupt CD ROM files which make the drive
operable. However, her laptop start up discs are CD ROM's and can not be run
on the PC since the drive doesn't work. Is there another way for her to
reformat the PC? Possibly with floppy discs or via Microsoft downloads? I'm
determined to help her with this because she's on the verge of taking her
laptop to a mall kiosk for reapairs if I can't get it fixed for her and I
know that won't be good. lol! Thanks for your time. -K. Walker

You write "...somehow her CD ROM drive has files that either became
corrupt or were accidently deleted." Presumably you are referring to
CD ROM driver files. Your diagnosis is probably incorrect: Damaged
or missing CD ROM driver files would NOT prevent the machine from
booting with a WinXP startup disk. There is a simple reason: The initial
boot-up process does not use or require any Windows driver files.

It sounds like your CD drive has a problem, or your WinXP CDs are
damaged. You can confirm this by booting the machine with a Win98
boot diskette from www.bootdisk.com. It includes drivers for most
popular CD drives. See if you can read your CDs when booting the
machine with this boot diskette.

 

[Ron Sommer]

:
: : > I couldn't find any help topics on this issue so I thought I'd seek help
: from
: > you. My mother has an HP laptop with Windows XP as the operating system.
: She
: > has recently learned that some how her CD ROM drive has files that
either
: > became corrupt or were accidently deleted. We have tried reinstalling
the
: CD
: > ROM drivers from the HP website but this hasn't solved the issue. We
were
: > told that reformatting the pc and reinstalling Windows XP should solve
the
: > problem and restore the missing/corrupt CD ROM files which make the
drive
: > operable. However, her laptop start up discs are CD ROM's and can not be
: run
: > on the PC since the drive doesn't work. Is there another way for her to
: > reformat the PC? Possibly with floppy discs or via Microsoft downloads?
: I'm
: > determined to help her with this because she's on the verge of taking
her
: > laptop to a mall kiosk for reapairs if I can't get it fixed for her and
I
: > know that won't be good. lol! Thanks for your time. -K. Walker
:
: You write "...somehow her CD ROM drive has files that either became
: corrupt or were accidently deleted." Presumably you are referring to
: CD ROM driver files. Your diagnosis is probably incorrect: Damaged
: or missing CD ROM driver files would NOT prevent the machine from
: booting with a WinXP startup disk. There is a simple reason: The initial
: boot-up process does not use or require any Windows driver files.
:
: It sounds like your CD drive has a problem, or your WinXP CDs are
: damaged. You can confirm this by booting the machine with a Win98
: boot diskette from www.bootdisk.com. It includes drivers for most
: popular CD drives. See if you can read your CDs when booting the
: machine with this boot diskette.
:
:
The CD drive would have to be before the hard drive in the boot order for
the XP CD to boot.
Does the CD drive light flash during boot?
Is the CD drive listed before the hard drive in the boot order?