boot up disc not working, know cause, need fix

[gettingbigj1978]

celeron d 266 ghz 1g&128 m ram cd & dvd burn drives & 768/6 hi speed to 54mbs belkin router. windows xp home sp2          please help, sorry for cryptic message, my comp is down but  luckily  have playstation portable for internet.        i changed values using cmd regedit.   before long, i erased all users except mycomp/myname (by going down each line, h_key_root etc, and clicking properties, disabled parent child inherit rights box, deleting admin users, and set mycomp/myname as the "owner".  by doing

[gettingbigj1978]

by doing this, only one   user, not administrator,system,creator,or restricted had  rights, just myself as "owner" (audit tab).  myself had all rights except "special rights". changed vital programs,startup especially. trying to use reboot disc(3) from  'gq' "frys", which has win xp sp2.  on startup, MBR file changes, shortly after,   error, cant read image file.  how do i reboot?  SOS

[merlin_2]

relist pc specs? as they dont make any sense?

[patio]

Personally i'd be suprised if that machine ever starts with so much registry pruning.
Your probably looking at a repair install.

patio.

[gettingbigj1978]

intel celeron-d 2.66 Ghz, 1.128 MB RAM, 2 CD/DVD burners, floppy, connected online via belkin 54 Mb wired (using PSP to get online infrastructure).  using microsoft xp sp2, on a great quality gq5090 from frys electronics (specs say i586 awardpc?as manuf.)  think i need 2 reinstall but cant access anything. thanks all 4 any help u can give

[GX1_Man]

A good format and reinstall will cure most Windows problems....for a while anyway.

[gettingbigj1978]

how would i do that if i cant access anything?

[GX1_Man]

Can it boot with a Windows CD? Have you ever installed an operating system? Is your data backed up?

[gettingbigj1978]

cant reboot w/ windows xp home sp2 disc.  never installed hardware(first comp). dont care about data, i just want it to work.  before, when boot disk did work, i was able to reset MFT. then "image it 3.0 by wasay", the program that reads boot disc cant see image.  i then went to bios to change cmos settings to fail/safe defaults. now screen freezes on first  screen (only lists processor, before it listed all drives/sizes)

[GX1_Man]

So this is an XP disc, or some kind of restore CD?

Do you have access to a PC with a high speed connection and a CD Burner?  I would recommend a live LInux CD to see if this is hardware or software at fault. if it boots and runs, its' software. if it hangs, you will at least get error messages to see where the problems are.

[gettingbigj1978]

no web access because cant access OS. the 3 discs i have are "product recovery" w/ xp on it.  ive since reset the CMOS jumper, so i can at least  get to dos. or  the screen freezes on screen before login

[gettingbigj1978]

perghaps im  missing a step? i see how linux cd would test compatibility, but i have a hunch my cds and player are fine. clearing CMOS worked, i have a hunch i missed a step

[Windows98]

So you want to erase your Hard Drive with http://www.killdisk.com or want to have a startup disk. www.bootdisk.com

[GX1_Man]

perghaps im  missing a step? i see how linux cd would test compatibility, but i have a hunch my cds and player are fine. clearing CMOS worked, i have a hunch i missed a step

Well that hunch hasn't fixed it yet has it?  

Good luck. Let me sum up so far. You've at least FUBAR'ed the OS where it's not going to work right and then monkeyed with some CMOS settings without understanding that and it doesn't work. All you have are restore CD's, not full WIndows XP CD's, and it is in an unusal format that the computer cannot recognize now they will not boot. Is that about it?

[gettingbigj1978]

youve about summed it up my friend.  unsure if fubar connotes equivalent assumption of ignorance... im not the brightest crayon.  i created some new options, remembering i have p3 to harvest.  preparing to cry wolf after killdisc erases any shred of self esteem

[GX1_Man]

FUBAR= FU**ED UP BEYOND ALL RECOGNITION

[gettingbigj1978]

oh man as it turns out, erasing hdd does not magically give system ability to read discs it couldn't have before.  now my issues lies w/ commands in dos.  stumbled through '/?' to get help, but no avail.  am i right in assuming that all those dos commands before windows starts are the same ones executed w/ a start up disc? im having trouble choosing the right variables, is anyone familiar w/ these? please point me in the right direction; i use option 4 safe w/ prompts, then i get conf. w/ all y/n questions

[GX1_Man]

i'm afraid Fed will have to place you in the proper place for this. Any further monkeying around will NOT fix this - not DOS, not magic,....nothing.


Take him away Fed!

[Mac]

I would cut your losses and go for a clean install.

[gettingbigj1978]

thank you all for your help.  happy to say that im using my computer this time.  i called the manufacturer for a boot disk, they said the one i had was defective, call the store.  called the store that i bought it from, told them i need a boot disk, said i should call the manufacturer.  bottom line, no help rendered.  as it turns out, cleaning the drive via killdisk, and then clean installing windows did the trick.  so far, problems are gone, but im waiting for any virus/worm to rear its head before im totally scot free.  wanted to post an update and a thanks to everyone who does this for free! thanks!

[Mac]

Sorted!

You'll find XP bootdisks on the link below.

[GX1_Man]

Glad you are up and running. Now keep your spyware/adware/antivirus up to date and use it and you should be fine.