HELP ME!!!!!!!

[hgiklmpn]

I have a Sony Vaio laptop with Windows 2000. It cannot start-up because files are missing or corrupt. I have a Windows XP Pro install CD but there is no CD drive in the computer. I found an external one but it was never installed on the computer. I also have boot disks for WIn 2000 and XP Pro. What can I do to install XP on the laptop? (do I have to somehow install drivers for the CD drive?)

[bartrob]

wow this sounds fun

plug in the external drive then turn on the laptop as its booting up see if you can get into the bios f10 i think but not sure you may have to just run your finger accross all the "f" keys as its booting up. if you can get into the bios see if you can find a menu that has a boot up sequence in it  look for the cdrom drive and have it set at number 1 followed by your floppy followed by your hard drive now get out of all this and open the cd rom and put your boot up disk in

restart the computer and hope for the best i dont work with win2000 so i cannot help you from here but if you use the help options in the disk you might be able to fix the missing boot files

[hgiklmpn]

Its as if the CD drive is not even there. It is not recognized in any way and when I go to the boot menu in BIOS setup all that is listed is a diskette drive, hard drive, and an old CD drive that is no broken and of no use.

[patio]

Use the set of 4 Win2K floppies to boot...this may load drivers so the external drive can be seen.
It may not be D: so you'll havt to try a few letters including R:
When finished booting at the A: prompt type D: dir and hit Enter until you  find which drive letter is being used.
Once located then type the drive letter I.E. D: setup and hit Enter.
The installation will now start.

[hgiklmpn]

what if I only have one usb and my usb hub does not work when i plug it in for some reason

[patio]

Did you read what was suggested ? ?
The floppy drive should work no matter what the USB ports are doing.
Then the external CDRom should show up since the bootdisks have loaded generic drivers...

[hgiklmpn]

when i'm on the boot menu, it gives me the option to enter setup, repair (using emergency disks or recovery console) or just quit. do I want the recovery console?

[patio]

You want a repair install...

Instructions here

I suggest reading thru them first paying attention to the Warnings, and printing out a copy for reference.
If done properly XP will be fixed and all your data will be intact.
If done improperly you may lose all your data but will have a fresh install of XP

Good Luck.