Fatal Error!!! Help ME ASAP!! PLEASE!!

[OaT]

Okay Where To Begin.... My friend's labtop was running windows xp pro no problems, until he ran windows update for the first time in i dont know how long, after he rebooted his password wouldnt work and there was no way around it, he asked me to format his hd and clean install xp pro, in the process of doing that,I booted from the cd and formatted his C: drive, he only has one drive. in the beginning of the setup process the cd was scratched and wouldnt read, had to exit the setup and try again with a different cd, when i went to do this i got the NTLDR is Missing Error Message... now i cant do anything, i cant even boot from the cd. I really need to fix this kids labtop before the semester starts any help would be greatly appreciated!! please help!!

[Gettinbye]

First off, WELCOME to TECHIMO
Secondly, you shouldn't double post...Just be patient and someone will get to you...
Now to your question...the second time (with the new CD) did you reformat the drive again?

[OaT]

Sorry For Double Posting.. No I was never able to get into the Setup on the second cd so i never got to reformat the hd again, I hit the delete key so that it will start booting from the cd and thats when the NTLDR is Missing error comes up. what is the exact name of the file that is known as ntldr, so i check the cd and make sure its not corrupted on the cd itself..

[eagle1]

Are you sure you are booting from the cd?
That error usually happens when the PC tries to run the OS installed on the hard drive (in this case XP) so ...

Are you sure that second CD is bootable!

[Gettinbye]

I don't suppose you have a 98 or Millenium boot disk handy? Sounds like you've got a botched partial setup, and need to reformat. With a boot disk, you can format using fdisk...
*EDIT* Are your fingers burning from the warp speed yet Eagle1? (LOL)

[OaT]

Yea it definatly is a partial setup on the comp now because, i wasnt able to to finish the setup because its couldnt read certain files about 20% into the setup. Im thinking maybe the NTLDR is corrupt on the cd, i'll try a different cd, i have a old Windows ME Upgrade CD, will that help at all? Im gonna try and get still a different xp pro cd. any other suggestions..

[eagle1]

Are you using an original CD??????
That doesn't happen too often!!

*EDIT* Are your fingers burning from the warp speed yet Eagle1? (LOL)

LOL... multitasking my friend!

[Sixpac_XP]

try www.bootdisk.com and get a book disk for Windows XP or 98 where you can load from the CD after the floppy has loaded.. with CD rom support.

[OaT]

Oh Yea Most important part, did i mention this trashy labtop has no floppy drive. so everything has to be done with cds, not floppies at all that should make everything a lil more interesting

[Gettinbye]

OUCH! No floppy could make this kinda hairy...Sounds like your second CD may not be bootable and your first one is corrupt...
OK-here's a thought...try booting to the original CD (the one you said was defective), and when it begins reading it, hit the eject button on your CD drive. It should throw an error. Put the second CD (the good one) in the drive, and hit RETRY on the error dialogue box. This is not exactly orthadox, but it may work.
Something else...the computer that you're at right now-does it have a CD burner? I'm thinking maybe you could make the bootable floppy, burn the contents to a CD, and try booting with that CD...not sure if it would work, but maybe worth a shot...
Anyone have any other ideas?