Scratched XP upgrade disk

Okay, to give some background on this, my hard drive melted on the week before christmas. I mean, literally, melted. Got a new hard drive (after waiting for what seemed like forever) and tried to upload the windows XP with a fresh install. No go. Something was clogging up the works.

So, I put Windows 98 on there (Wow, talk about a step back.) and tried the upgrade to XP Home. Appearently, several files wouldn't copy properly. And, as it turned out, those were the crucial ones.

My question is thus: Is there anyway to find the missing files somewhere (legally) else? This is an upgrade disk borrowed from my cousin and the option to ask the tech support at the college I go to for help is still open.

And I'm also too broke to go buy another copy of XP. At least at the moment. Oh, and I'm not sure on the specifics on my computer's hardware. It did support and run Windows XP Professional and (very, very s-s-st-stu-stuttery) run X3: Terran Conflict.

 

You should be able to copy the XP installation disc to a blank CD. If it is just a few scratches the new copy may work.

Imgburn can copy the scratched disc to the HD of a working computer and then burn it back to a new blank disc.

Use the "Create Image File from Disc" to copy the disc to an ISO file on your HD. Then use the "Write Image file to Disc" option to burn the newly created ISO file to a blank CD.

Many times this will work fine. The information is still on the disc but during installation even a small glitch causes problems. A fresh disc helps eliminate the read problems.

 

...and wipe straight across from inside to outside, never circular.

 

Take it to your local video game store. They have disc polishers that can remove many scratches.

 

t-cut works wonders on scratched disks as well

 

It has to be white toothpaste not gel toothpaste to do its job.

 

...Toothpaste? I've never heard of that one...

Thank you! Those all sound like excellent ideas! I'll try the ImgBurn, because we could use a back-up copy of XP for our computers around the house.

By the by, does anyone know anything about Linux? Considering all the trouble I've had with XP, I'm thinking about switching to another OS.

 

If you have an extra CD or two it is very easy to try Linux before installing it. Virtually every Linux distro will run directly from CD (albeit more slowly) for the purpose of trying it out before installation. Just download the ISO file and write it to CD using a program like imgburn and the "Write Image File to Disc" option.

Linux Mint, PCLinuxOs, Ubuntu and Xbuntu are all user friendly with a familiar Windows style desktop with a Start/Menu button.

If you have an empty USB flash drive you can use a program like LiLi to download and write the files to a USB drive to try several out without writing them to CD. One distro at a time. The persistence option allows you to install programs and save preferences like Firefox bookmarks to the USB flash so you don't start from scratch everytime you boot from the USB stick.

I, personally, have never been totally happy with a Linux only system. Everything works fine but I still like to experiment with new programs and I have never invested enough time finding new ones written for Linux.

 

I always try a live distro before I'd consider installing it on a computer.
I use this program http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/
to write the distro to a USB stick then boot from the stick.

Live distros listed here http://livecdlist.com/
click on the house icon to go to the home page for any distro.

 

And if you do try Linux, Ubuntu and Linux Mint are the 2 I would suggest.
Easier and more like Windows.