HDD & CD failure (BAAAAAAAD combo)

My CD failed first. Replaced it with new one, no joy. Trouble shooting indicated "missing or corrupted section of INI file" (not exact quote, couple months ago). C drive failed during this time frame. Purchased new HDD and USB enclosure. Tried to to install XP on new HDD using laptop, laptop advised against doing so (would change settings used by laptop).

Q: Can I just copy the laptop C drive to other external drive as a backup, and then install XP on new HDD? Or can I boot desktop somehow and get device information for new drivers to fix the CD problem first, then just install XP normally (if there is such a thing). LOL


P.S. Should this be in hardware?

Just to clarify:

You were trying to Install XP on a PC via booting the CD on your laptop because the CD drive in your PC is not working?

Is this correct?

If so the thing to do is get that CD drive working. This has nothing to do with XP at this point.

You put in a new CD drive?

Is it detected in the BIOS?

If so is it set to boot prior to the HDD?

The CD (new or old) was not visible to XP before the HDD crashed (it was visible before any problems). I am not sure if it was detected by the BIOS, but it was previously set to boot first. I have since figured out that the driver might have gotten corrupted (this thought has come lately do to other problems I have fixed since then on another computer). Still new to trouble shooting at this level. If the driver was corrupted I should be able to find a new one and reinstall it (I think). Just have to get the info for this system I put together instead of buying a complete one.

DVD/CD (optical) drives require no drivers that are not already present in first your motherboard (BIOS) and then in XP which contains its own drivers.

If the CD drive is seen in the BIOS and is set to boot first:

Are you saying you cannot boot your XP CD?

That is correct. The CD was not visible in XP, I do not remember about in BIOS. If it was just a matter of reinstalling XP by inserting the CD that would have been done months ago. The thing is that when trouble shooting the problem in 'device manager' it said that the relavent portion of the INI/INF? file was missing or corrupted.

My thinking was that if I could some how install XP on the new HDD using the laptop I could then just install the new HDD in the desktop (and away we go). When I tried doing that the laptop gave all sorts of dire warnings so I stopped. I put the desktop together in 2002 (I think). I checked the BIOS to see if it could boot from a USB port, but it couldn't. Would it help if there was a BIOS upgrade that would do this? The only other thing I can think of right now is to identify the BIOS and all other hardware in the system and download all the latest drivers onto floppies here at work and redo every little thing.

If your CD drive cannot boot there is a hardware problem on your motherboard.

Windows or your hard drive is not in the equation at this point.

XP needs to be installed on the motherboard upon which it will run. You cannot just swap hard drives. Very few motherboards have a USB boot capability and if your's did you would probably know it.

I would go back into your BIOS and see if your CD drive is recognized there.

If not you have a motherboard problem. Especially after trying different drives.

Try the drive on a different channel. If it is Secondary Master try it as Primary slave.

BIOS updates are a possibility. Check the manufacturer's web site.

jephree,

Thanks for your help. I will try those things in the next few days when I get time. If those things don't help I will most likely just get a new system.

No problem.

Let us know how it goes.