Driver Cleaner killed my XP install?

[Absentee]

well i decided since my net was out last night (mom forgot to pay the bill) id finally clean up my desktop and upgrade my drivers to the latest

i ran driver cleaner pro and removed everything(meaning every driver in the list DC gives you), AND did the cab cleaner on ONLY driver.cab (not sp2.cab).

when i go to reboot so i can reinstall my drivers my machine wont boot!


it goes up till the part where it asks if i want to do safe mode and all that, but then it just reboots immediatley after. safe mode nor any other choices work

my guess is that its an MBR problem. but i only have a XP home cd sitting around, can't find my XP pro cd anywhere....

i try to go into the recovery console with my home CD, but when i try to log in to the windows install it tells me every possible password i could have used way back when is wrong... so no way i can get in there...

and i cant use the home CD to run a repair install (wont let me)

is there any way i can fix the MBR or do anything that the repair console could do (i know there was 2 commands that i would use in there that usually fixed a problem like this, fixMBR and something else) that would help me get out of this short of finding my XP pro CD?


oh also, any way i could call MS and get a replacement cd?

posting from my ubuntu live cd now


oh ps. among all this my DVD-RW drive decided to fry itself...kinda ironic that all this is happening 2 days before i was gonna order a mac mini......something fishy here

 

[Phoenix86]

can't find my XP pro cd anywhere....

D'oh! I'm thinking this is going to be an issue.

The disk itself is not keyed, so if you have a legit license and access to another disk, burn a copy. The license is the legal part, not the disk.

kinda ironic that all this is happening 2 days before i was gonna order a mac mini......something fishy here

Yes, god is punishing you for ordering it.

 

[ThreeDee]

not all WinXP Pro disc' are equal tho to just throw in anyone and be able to do a repair reinstall ..as far as just using recovery console ..not sure on that one.

 

[Phoenix86]

Yes, I believe it need to be the same license type as well (VLA, OEM, retail).

 

[nessus]

I'm guessing you probably removed the driver for your disk controller as well. It probably wasn't supported under SP2 if it is SATA...

 

[Absentee]

its an IDE drive.


any way to add the drivers back into the windows install from a seperate XP install? (im running on the windows XP home disk i had now, installed on a seperate HDD)

 

[Shane]

Not a wise choice to do a driver clean / upgrade without a internet connection to download the latest drivers lol heck just format the sucker and redo the os I redo my os every 3 months and keep my media files on dvd games etc I can have a spanking new os with all my software and updates for it in 3 hours tops.

 

[Absentee]

i want to. but i have no backup solution currently (i can back my most important files, but i have irreplaceable files that i currently can't backup because of lack of storage space)

oh yea. i had previously downloaded the drivers, i just never got around to installing them...