Repair Install of SP2?

[Windwatcher]

My sony CRX700E CD burner is no longer detected (XP Home SP2, IBM Thinkpad
X20) and it isn't the drive (I swapped in the DVD drive that originally came
and get the same results). I was unable to update any driver. This is a
sort of catch 22 because I can't insert either my original XP disk or the
SP2 CD to do a repair install.

When I get the Windows Update page, it says it's searching for files which
may take a minute -- and nothing ever happens. I think I really need to
reformat and do a whole clean install, much as I hate the prospect, but I
don't dare do that until I have an accessible CD ROM drive. I just tried
typing 'command' in the Run box, but it just flashes and disappears.

So what should I do to start to get functional again?

 

[Alex Nichol]

My sony CRX700E CD burner is no longer detected (XP Home SP2, IBM Thinkpad
X20) and it isn't the drive (I swapped in the DVD drive that originally came
and get the same results). I was unable to update any driver. This is a
sort of catch 22 because I can't insert either my original XP disk or the
SP2 CD to do a repair install.

You may have lost files needed to satisfy some registry references. To
tidy up, get a registry patch file, cdgone.reg, from
www.aumha.org/downloads/cdgone.zip, extract it, r-click on it and merge
it into the registry and reboot

You will then need to reinstall any burning software that you use.