Hi Everyone, Needed help restoring windows

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Hi everyone,
I've just signed up for this forum after spending sometime surfing the net for some possible info that could help me sort my problem out. But i think it would be a better idea to ask you guys out there!
I got this laptop which i've made some registry editing but after turning on for the next time it's just came up with a black screen. Unfortunately I didn't make any back up. I tried 'last known good configuration' but didn't work at all. Coincidentally, my dvd-rom drive is broken so reinstalling windows is not an option for me at this time. Please, Im asking anyone out there who can give me advice how can i restore windows if it still possible. Or if reinstalling windows is the only way, how am i going to do it without my built-in drive working? i've checked cmos set-up but only found 3.5 floopy drive and network from the boot list.
Thanks in advance guys!!!

Regards,
francis

 

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what OS are you using?

have you tried using Sysem Restore if using XP/ME?

 

thanks for reading my message! Im using xp home edition. I haven't try system restore, don't know how to get there without windows loaded. Could you please tell me how...
Cheers mate!!

 

What changes did you make to the Registry and why? It could be these changes are nothing to do with Windows not booting up (although it sounds likely). Can you boot into Safe Mode (press F8 straight after the post)?

 

I've just read article from the net about hiding the contents of 'add remove programs' from the control panel and out of curiosity, i tried it. But can't turn on my laptop the next time so I just suspect that what i've done is causing that trouble. I tried to boot into safemode but can't...Is there any other way? Cheers!

 

Off the top of my head, two things you can try would be to try and borrow an external CD drive or get hold of/create some kind of bootable floppy or USB stick containing some diagnostic utilities (suggestions anyone?). Do you have another PC? If so, you could boot the laptop from a Knoppix Live installation on a USB stick and network it to your other PC. You might then be able to at least pull any important files off the laptop, That solution makes a few assumptions on the type of equipment you have to hand though.

 

At what point does the boot up crash? Do you see any of the Windows XP spash screen, or is it just blank from POST onwards?



Oh yeah, welcome to CF!

 

Cheers! it's just a blank screen from post onwards...thanks for some ideas guys and i will try those and will get back to you soon!
Cheers to all of you guys!

 

I think it's time to invest in a new CD/DVD drive. It sounds to me like the registry is corrupted now, so you either have to manually fix it, which would require booting up from a CD like BartPE or do a windows repair which would also require booting up from the original OS CD. Either way, without a CD drive, you are seriously hampered.

 

take the hard drive out and put it into another comp where there is a cd/dvd rom... extereme i know!

 

Hi there and welcome to CF

 

dont try that unless the hardware is the same as your machine...

 

That may be a little difficult as it's a laptop.

 

I've told you a million times, don't exaggerate Sparky!

 

Thank you guys for those infos!!! let me ask you this: is it possible to run windows installation from external drive? i made a querry about replacement of the built-in one and it's a bit expensive... Cheers!!

 

external cd or hdd? i know it can be done with the cd drive and sure it could be done with a hdd aswell, but someone will give you a def answer.

 

I think it depends on whether your BIOS will support booting from USB devices.

 

i borrowed an external dvdrw drive to try installing windows from there but no options in the bios settings to boot from usb devices. what's in there is just a floopy and network. how can i boot from network? is it as simple as if i connected my laptop to a network then i would have a chance to connect to other computer's cd drive and boot from there?? really don't have much idea but that is one of the option in the bios boot list...cheers!

 

Booting from the network won't help you here unless you happen to have a server with a Windows image stored on it. I'm guessing not. I think you're going to have to cave in and fix the internal CD drive.