Boot disk...?

Question

I have a PC, which had a virus on it and one of the important XP files got corrupted, and since then has failed to start windows.
I need to boot my computer, so i can reinstall my windows XP home disk.
But i dont know where to get boot disks from what boot disk ill need.
I've come accross http://www.bootdisk.com/ and also found some boot disks on ebay although i'd like a free basic bott disk that all it does it make me able to reinstall my OS.

Bootdisk.com looks ok, but i dont know which one to get.

I want one where i download it on this pc, burn it onto a CD, and then i can boot my old pc up.

Or is it more often done other ways? With floppy disk etc..

I can use a floppy or a CD, so i'd like some suggestions please

Thanks.

Yea i try it but i cant seem to find what to boot it from, it doesnt have a cd option however i've runned tests on the hardware config and it works fine.

Answer 1

After reading your additional information I'm trying to figure out if there is a blank list in your boot options or you might not know what they are. For example when I enter my BIOS and goto the BOOT tab and select Boot Disk Priority I have a list that looks like this:

1st Boot Disk [1st FLOPPY DRIVE]
2nd Boot Disk [PM - MAXTOR 6Y080]
3rd Boot Disk [SM - ASUS DRW-161]

Without knowing what brand of hard drive and cd drive I had I probably would have had to guess which was which.

Again I can't tell what your seeing/not seeing when you enter into there. Hope it helps.

Answer 2

Before you do a complete (destructive) reinstall, why don't you give the repair console a try. Here's how.

Put your XP disk into your CD drive and restart your system. This will start the XP installation process. When you come to the screen that asks if you want to install XP or if you would like to “Repair” XP, choose Repair. This will open the repair console command prompt. At the prompt, type: chkdsk /r. (There is a space between the k and the /. Now hit “Enter”. The repair should now start. Allow it to run until it stops. This can take some time, so be patient.

If all goes well, XP will replace any and all missing operating system files.

Answer 3

You dont need a boot disk from boot disk.com
You need a XP install cd.
However if this system is a Dell, they put a recovery partition on their systems as of the year 2004. You can access this by pressing ctrl F11 once the dell splash screen appears.
Gateway's also have this option. but usually ask for disks to complete.

Answer 4

Put your Windows install disk into your cd drive and boot from that.
Avatarxz

Answer 5

You can boot directly from your Windows XP reinstall CD. Have you tried this?

Answer 6

use your windows installation cd to boot and repair XP

Answer 7

if u have xp it will boot from the installation disk ... u need to enter bios settup and change the bootorder to cdrom first ...

Answer 8

Is not your xp disc bootable?
you can simply create a bootable disc with nero,
just open nero in another pc and create a bootable data disc.