Broken A: Drive

[Conscious*]

My mom's computer (right next to mine) was infected with SpyWare galore, me and my uncle used the Windows XP restoration CD and re-formatted both the C and D drive Partitions, then installed windows XP. We started up XP and everything worked fine. He then installed Quicken 2000, and TurboTax, along with her printer. When quicken asked if you wanted to reboot your computer now, or later, he chose now and rebooted. After it shutdown the computer brought up Compaq screen and then went to an all black screen and froze. The A drive light was blinking. So then i turned my CPU on and made a MS-Prompt Boot Disc for the A Drive. I put that in and it only brings me to a screen where i can type in commands. I tried various other small things like taking all the discs out of the computer nothing happened. I then figured that i should reformat again. I put in the XP Boot Disc and turned off and then on the power. It took me to the black screen and asked me if i to press any key to boot from the CD. No keys would work and my computer froze both times after i restarted my computer and tried again. The only thing i can get to where i can actually edit something is by putting in the A Drive Boot Disk where it brings me to a command prompt... Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Shockwave...no this one wasn't my fault im still on reformatt #9 :p

[shockwave203]

Originally posted by Crypt


Shockwave...no this one wasn't my fault im still on reformatt #9 :p

lol, that's good to hear. I'm sure #10 is right around the corner

anyway, so you say the only way you can get to a command prompt is by inserting the bootdisc into drive A?

ok, well if that's the case, insert the bootdisc and get to command prompt. type in the letter of your CD drive with :/

so if your CD drive is drive D (as with most people), type d:/

then type dir

folder/file names on the CD will then be displayed. type: setup or install (forget which one it is) and the windowsXP setup should start up.

if that does't work, hold down the 'del' key when you start your computer. That will take you into your bios. try changing the boot order, so that your CD drive boots up first.

[Conscious*]

Hopefully a 10th isnt around the corner but anyway...

D:/ didnt work

CDROM and C drive were already before the A:

[shockwave203]

what did it say when D:/ didn't work? bad command or file name? you said that your uncle and you formatted C and D drive partitions? so that would bump your CD drive to E:/?

try doing it with E:/

[Conscious*]

invalid drive specificated for d and e

[shockwave203]

so...you start your computer and it freezes at a black screen. if you start it with the floppy disc inside, it will go to the command prompt?

might be a low-level virus infected the boot-sector, although those are fairly rare these days.....Maybe the HD just up and died? or something on the mobo? If you run fdisk from the floppy disk you made, does it see the HD's?