format probs

xp formating am I screwed

Help I think i'm screwed ... was in the middle of reformating widows xp from recovery dics , the system ran through 4 discs of 7 when i got to disc #5 it said ( PROPER DISC NOT INSTALLED ) im guessing it was a bad disc...
So now when I shut down pc and try last good running setting by pressing f10 it goes back and tells me to load disc 5 ...... im lost and i hope someone here can point me in the right direction ................ I have no other windows xp discs's to install

 

Re: xp formating am I screwed

To add to my post pressing f8 or f10 the pc tells me that ( NTLDR ) is missing and it takes me back to install dics 5.

it seems that im locked out and can do nothing else need help bad,

PS. the recovery discs came with the pc

system is 2800 xp 2.08 GHz
512 DDR SDRAM
Harddrive 120

 

Re: xp formating am I screwed

Using a disk from someone else will only work if all you have is xp home or xp pro installed. If your computer came with xp pre installed then you have a oem verson and your key will not work with anything but a oem verson of xp unless someone knows something I dont.

You may have to contact the maker of the computer and request a restore disk.

 

Re: xp formating am I screwed

it's very possible it's just a dirty disc. Make sure there are no fingerprints on it. Clean it with a very soft cloth. Use a tiny, tiny, TINY, spritz of windex if you want, just make sure it's totally dried off before you put it in the drive.

 

Re: xp formating am I screwed

Good point. If not

Start at the beginning.

7 Cd's for recovery that's over 4GB of stuff. Windows XP fits on one CD.
What is you recovery sytem and where did it come from?

Why are you pressing F10?, presumably this is the manufacturer's instruction.

Why are you now trying F8?
The NTLDR is missing message sounds like the system is looking in the wrong place. During you partial reinstall did your setup restart your pc at any point?

Does your pc have a floppy drive?

 

A while back reformatted and had one bad disc with windows XP, heres what I tried for a fix took my XP recovery disc from my laptop installed it in my desktop. Well it took have all windows updates new drivers for sound and vidio card ......
Lost all programs on decktop in doing this , have already redownloaded most of them ,,,,,,,, But have tried to install STEAM to play an old halflife 2 game ive had laying around, indoing so the pc says it cant get updates because its not connected to the internet when it is.
Ive ran across this with another game also ................ Is there a fix for this??



PS Sorry for the repost on this but lost my other password........