wife crashed win xp but 1st restore disk wont work

my wife crashed my computer, windows xp operating system. Nothing is there, it will come on and show first window but my restore disk #1 won't work, the rest will because they have been in pockets. What can I do without the first disk? It says " invalid system disk or Disk I/O error. press any key to restart. Disk Boot Failure, insert system disk and press enter"
No one I know has a 1st disk I can use.
Please help. I think it destroyed partions and all.
thanks, Nathan

 

what exactly happens?


If and only if you are certain that the disk is damaged or dirty

Try carefully polishing the surface of the disk, first with a clean dry cloth, then if that doesn't help, window or auto glass polish.
When you polish do not go round and round the disk, but across from centre to outside.
You can get more aggressive machine to do this, perhaps your local pc store will do it for a small fee?

 

It says " invalid system disk or Disk I/O error. press any key to restart. Disk Boot Failure, insert system disk and press enter"

I have cleaned the disk the best I can, I'm afraid theres no hope for it. Is there a place where i can download disk one?

 

Can you read (not boot) the disk on another system? Is it in fact your disk 1?

 

Thank you, I never thought of trying it on another computer. I did try it and it did not work so I guess that is it for that cd. Thanks for trying :cry