unable to install xp on a laptop

[steve.p]

Hi, my son has an acer travelmate 2700 laptop.He lost the recovery cd :( that came with it and then decided to re size the partitions on it and removed the recovery partition on the hdd :eek: :eek: .After my wife unclamped my hands from around his neck :mad: I decided to ask some questions on this forum. I set the 1st boot device to the cd/dvd drive and thought i'd do a fresh install of xp but all that happens is the usual system info and then a blinking cursor in the top left hand corner of a blank screen. How do i get the legal copy of xp to boot so I can format etc. Help is most appreciated .Thanks in advance

[Steve R Jones]

Blowing the dust out of the cd drive and or cleaning the cd might help. Couple little specs of dust could keep the drive from seeing the cd...so it then goes and boots off the hard drive.

[Midknyte]

did you try any other known good bootable discs?

[steve.p]

cd drive was working ok before this.Cleaned again but still the same.
Can you suggest another bootable disc I could try.
Thanks for your quick replies

[Midknyte]

You don't have any other bootable discs? Get UBCD. Link is in my sig.

If you don't know how to burn .iso files, read the UBCD FAQ (http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/faq.html)

[steve.p]

Love the UBCD. Booted straight up using it.Deleted and formated the hdd using partmagic but still unable to install xp .Still the same blank screen with a blinking cursor in the top left corner.Any ideas

[steve.p]

Sorted:D . Using parted magic I had formated the hdd the first time .The second time I put it to unallocated and it worked:D:D:D:D.Thanks for your help