IBM Thinkpad 390E Recovery Problems

[zmccal2]

Ok, I've got a problem that I hope someone can help me with. I've got an IBM Thinkpad 390E that I bought 5 years ago when I started college, and because of various problems, I am trying to run the recovery cd.
The problem is that put the recovery cd in the drive, re-booted, and I got a blue screen saying "recovery cd...please wait" a couple of times, and then the screen just went blue and never did anything else. So I shut the computer off and tried to re-boot without the recovery cd, and now I get a message saying "missing operating system". Does anyone know if I could install XP or the original Windows 95 Operating System back onto the computer by simply inserting my XP or Windows 95 CD into the drive and re-booting? If not, does it sound like I just have a bad recovery CD or something and I need to get another one b/c this is only a problem that could be fixed with a recovery CD?

Thanks everybody...

Zach

[johnnyis42]

don't see why you wouldn't be able to install something else. just remember to delete all the wierd partitions IBM's install put on there. if you're using a fresh install cd of windows you don't need any of those other partitions, they are merely for the OEM's recovery/utility cd's.

[sechs]

What were the "various problems?" These may give us a clue as to why you cannot use the recovery CD.