I will contact Dell to see if it is possible to "repair" with their upgrade
windows xp professional disk.

i know i am booting with off the cd as the cd drive runs at start up, and
boots rather slow.

and, i did set the bois so it boots off the cd first, and then goes to the
HD - to boot system


"badger man" wrote:

> Total frustration! Help please. I have been trying for days to reform my c:
> drive. Dell laptop, w floopy, and CD.
>
> i have read all the instruction here and on support sites
>
> I put in the Windows XP Professional CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive – as
> instructed.
>
> I have changed the bois so the computer boots off the CD
>
> I have a windows xp – upgrade disk as that is what I bought from Dell and
> what is currently installed.
>
> I put this CD in and turn on the computer. Windows reads the CD drive and
> starts a CD boot. The computer runs off of the CD and boots to:
>
> Please select the operating system to start:
>
> Windows XP Professional
> Windows XP Professional
>
> Press enter to choose.
>
> When I hit enter – to choose – the computer boots all the way to the opening
> windows screen hence, I never get a chance to get the choice to “repair” as
> the instructions say.
>
> I am clueless?
>
> Help please - and, thanks in advance
>
>
> If I press f8 for choices {nothing here to get to the repair choice – that I
> can see}
> I hit enter and windows boots completely
>