Windows Disc Not Detected

[Ritwik7]

Hi everyone.

Yesterday my friend needed to reformat his PC as it was failing to boot into Windows and saying that some system file had become corrupt. So he acquired a Windows XP Pro SP2 disc from somewhere and called me up to ask what he should do. I told him to change the 1st Boot Device in BIOS to CD-ROM and reboot with the Windows disc inserted and from then on to follow on-screen instructions to reformat. He later called me up again to say that after rebooting his screen either remained blank or froze in the BIOS screen. The disc does not seem to be detected / working.

He claims that the disc is in perfect condition and also the his CD Drive is functioning properly. Any clues as to why this is happening? What should he try now?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Route44]

Question: Is this a legit copy or a burned copy?

 

[Ritwik7]

I have no clue Route44. Now since he says that he procured it from somewhere, it may be a burned copy. It was supposedly working fine when he formatted another PC of his a while back.

Other than the disc / disc drive being bad, any other things that may be causing this problem?

Thanks.

 

[Route44]

Well sometimes DVD/CD drives can be picky. It could be something as simple as it won't read that particular brand of CD. I've had it happen to me. For instance, we have had great luck with Maxell-R CDs for burning and play. My son has a Sony CD player. I bought some Sony CDs for music burns. The Sony won't read them but it will the Maxell! Go figure...

 

[WinXPert]

If it is a burned copy try to make a copy again at a slower speed and use your own CD Key.

 

[Ritwik7]

Thanks. I'll tell him to burn at a slower speed (if it's a burned copy) and try again. But maybe it isn't a very good idea to give away my Windows key.

 

[Route44]

But maybe it isn't a very good idea to give away my Windows key.

Agreed.

 

[Ritwik7]

Hi again there.

Just wanted to know whether the above issue could be caused by a bad / failing HDD. Or is there absolutely no relation between them?

Also, my friend's PC is not powering up any longer.

Thanks.

 

[Route44]

Have you tested the psu with a multimeter? The psu must be plugged into the motherboard but all other peripherals unattached to the power cables.

 

[SNGX1275]

I'm going to take a different approach to solving this.

He may have copied an XP disk (or dled a noob torrent of it) where he only has the directory structure and files - the problem with that is you don't get a bootable cd that way. So he has 2 options here..
1. Reburn as a bootable disk - this will require getting the boot image. You can probably google for "microsoft corporation img" to get it.
2. Boot from something to get you to a DOS prompt and then type <CDDrive>:\I386\winnt.exe which will start the XP install.