CDRom won't read and windows won't boot

AVG Free removed userinit.exe on Sony Vaio notebook with XP Home SP2 so I have the log on /log off thing going, can't boot into safe mode with the administrator account, it logs right back off. I could repair this if I could boot from the XP CD but the CD Rom won't read either. I think the drivers or settings were also removed or corrupted in the malware removal process. This notebook does not have a floppy drive. It doesn't have an option to boot from USB. Boot from external device is enabled. I attached an external hard drive with windows installed on it but it didn't recognize that. Any hope for me? Any way i can get the cdrom to read without booting into the os?

 

Is the internal CD drive broken?
Have you looked into the registry to be sure it is enabled and set as the first boot device?

 

You need to enter the bios and select the cdrom as first boot device "I think thats what plod meant"

Nothing on the hard drive malware or not will stop you booting from CD,it will boot from a windows CD without a hard drive installed.

 

I have set cdrom as boot device in the bios and have disabled hdd in the list. It gives the OS not found message. The cdrom wasn't reading when I ran AVG either, although it is a very new laptop. The same user had another laptop with same kinds of virus problem (silly.fdc for one) and the cdrom stopped working on that one too which led me to believe the malware corrupted some settings or AVG removed some driver files. He bought a new laptop and withing a month here we are again. I am IT at a small private school.

 

Malware can't stop a cdrom from working when windows isn't loaded,first check your cdrom is seen in bios,then move it to the top of the list as the first boot device exit and save changes.

Read this

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=25831