While recently using an UNINSTALL program to get rid of some old programs on an almost full 1 of the 2 HD's on my Dell 333, I inadvertently deleted some Register keys which I believe control the Adaptec Directory which I believe also controls the CD rom DRIVES,1 internal , 1 external. Now the computer does not recognise the drives and also XP will not open, it appears to boot then stops on the XP icon. What can I do to to get the computer to recognise the CD rom drive(s) so that I can reboot from the WINDOWS CD or how can I resolve this problem? Do I have to get rid of XP ( delete files using DOS) alltogether and then reinstall and will it reinstall?
Did you restart computer?How else did I find out?go into the bios and make it boot to cd. INSERT your cd and choose repair. I tried that but it does not do anything. It always ends up as it reboots with the XP icon in the middle of a light blue band with 2 dark blue bands top and bottom of the screen. I REBOOTED up and used F8 to get to Safe Mode and it does sometimes get to a Safe Mode window but it always closes and then the same XP icon appears with the blue bands.It looks like bad CD drive to me.