Please Help - No Operating System

[Karen M.]

My son-in-law gave me his laptop to fix for him. My
grandson deleted a number of files and the computer
hasn't worked for some time. It DID have Windows 98
loaded but he doesn't have the disks for that program.
But I thought it would simply be a matter of purchasing
XP and installing it over what was already there. I
purchased the whole package - NOT the upgrade. The first
of many stupid things I did was to format the hard
drive. I have a little boot disk with "command.com" and
a few other files on it.

So here I am. I can boot but I can't get past a DOS
prompt. I can access the CD ROM but I can't boot from
the CD ROM. Typing setup from a DOS prompt doesn't do
anything. I have tried typing e:\I386\WINNT which gives
me a box that asks where the Windows XP files are loaded
and asks me to enter a path. I've tried everything that
I know how to do and nothing works.

I would really like to salvage this computer for my son-
in-law and grandson plus I've now got $200 invested in
software. Can anyone help?????

Thanks.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Are you ordinarily able to boot from the CD? Did you check the system BIOS
to determine if the CD-ROM is set first in line in the boot sequence? When
you boot the system, the first screen usually contains a message informing
you if you wish to enter setup or something similar and gives a key to
depress.

Boot the system, when you see that message on the first screen hit the key
as instructed. Once in, navigate to the boot sequence and place the CD-ROM
drive first in line. Then try booting from the XP CD.

NOTE: all functions, deleting and creating a partition and formatting can
and should be done from XP setup and not from a 9x boot disk. If you are
able to resolve the issue with booting from the CD, follow the instructions
below:
Boot with the XP CD in the drive. When you see the message on the boot
screen to "Press any key in order to boot from the CD," do so.

After loading drivers and files, you should be taken to a screen with
the following:

To Setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
To Repair a Windows XP Installation using Recovery Console press R.
To Quit setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

In your case, press ENTER.

Agree to the License agreement by pressing F8.

You will then be taken to a screen with two options.

To repair the selected Windows XP installation press R.
To continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing,
press ESC.

This will bring you to a partition map where you
can delete, create and format partitions.
Select the drive you wish to format, delete the partition, then create a new
partition, format as desired and continue with XP installation.

If you cannot get the system to boot from the CD, there are boot floppies
specifically for systems which are unable to boot from the CD-ROM drive for
this purpose:
XP Home Edition:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=E8FE
6868-6E4F-471C-B455-BD5AFEE126D8

XP Pro:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=33291