Ok, looks like my cd/dvd-rom in my laptop is dead. I think it probably got messed up after running the good old dvd region free software yesterday (I installed it a while ago but never used it since I have 2 stand alone region free players). Windows says there's nothing wrong and I already tried to deal with its drivers and stuff. I guess formatting and reinstalling windows would solve it but I cant do it because I cant boot form the cd-rom... I tried everything! dvd, dvd+r, cd-rom, regular cd's.... no type of media is working. It seems like there's some sort of problem that prevents the system from accessing the cd and/or dvd. You know, when you insert a cd/dvd you usually get that spinning noise... well, it doesnt happen anymore... Anyone ever tried to boot from a USB pen drive? Thanks a lot everybody! Ah, I'm new here!
you mean restoring the system to a certain day? yes, already tried that. if it's something else please let me know. I'm starting to think the dvd-rom 'engine' might be dead, the thing itself still gets power because I can open/close it no problem....
Done that too... As I already said I think that the region free software I was running has in some way affected the registry preventing the system to actually access the cds (=no spinning). The dvd-rom drivers seem to be ok (or at least that's what Windows says).
do you have a floppy drive in the laptop & if do, do you have or can get a win98 bootdisk so can boot of the floppy with cdrom support to see if reads a cd. or see if can boot off the xp cd to see if drive is scrap or not
hey ddp... first of all thanks again for helping me out! no, I not have a floppy drive, that's why I was wondering about booting from a USB pen drive... One thing that worries me is.... what if I boot from the pen drive and the dvd drive is ACTUALLY dead? will I be able to finish formatting?
don't format til certain drive is dead & don't think can boot off usb pen but try it anyhow!! have you tried safemode??
