Okay, so this is the situation:
Forgive me if this is the incorrect forum, it seemed the best choice so here goes. I'm somewhat of a noob, but I recently decided to get into the Linux scene because I'm attracted to the whole free-software, open-source phenomenon so I downloaded a Live-CD copy of DNS-N (Damn Small Linux - Not). I configured the BIOS to boot from CD, and it worked like a charm, no problem. I was excited to be greeted for the first time by Tux. Anyway, as you probably know, DSL gives you the capability to install to a USB drive which is what I did. So I shut down the computer, went back into the BIOS and configured it to load from the USB drive. When I restarted, it said boot failed. I pressed enter and it said insert disc, so I put the DSL cd back in thinking I could figure out what went wrong. I couldn't. So I decided to go look around in the forums again to see if I could glean any info, so I restart the computer, enter the BIOS, restore all of the default settings, save, exit, reboot and ..... "Boot failed". Yep. Now I can't get back in Windows. So this is the bottom line: I need to get back into Windows (XP). My computer didn't come with a Windows boot disc, I can't access the recovery from the BIOS screen, I don't have a floppy drive....what do I do guys? I've done a recovery before. My computer has a special Windows XP partition that it accesses it from but I can't seem to get the BIOS to recognize it anymore even though it's listed in the device priority menu. FYI, the BIOS is Phoenix AwardBIOS running on a Compaq Presario, 2.4 Ghz with 1024 MB RAM. I'm tearin' my hear out people! Somebody, PLEASE!!!
Forgive me if this is the incorrect forum, it seemed the best choice so here goes. I'm somewhat of a noob, but I recently decided to get into the Linux scene because I'm attracted to the whole free-software, open-source phenomenon so I downloaded a Live-CD copy of DNS-N (Damn Small Linux - Not). I configured the BIOS to boot from CD, and it worked like a charm, no problem. I was excited to be greeted for the first time by Tux. Anyway, as you probably know, DSL gives you the capability to install to a USB drive which is what I did. So I shut down the computer, went back into the BIOS and configured it to load from the USB drive. When I restarted, it said boot failed. I pressed enter and it said insert disc, so I put the DSL cd back in thinking I could figure out what went wrong. I couldn't. So I decided to go look around in the forums again to see if I could glean any info, so I restart the computer, enter the BIOS, restore all of the default settings, save, exit, reboot and ..... "Boot failed". Yep. Now I can't get back in Windows. So this is the bottom line: I need to get back into Windows (XP). My computer didn't come with a Windows boot disc, I can't access the recovery from the BIOS screen, I don't have a floppy drive....what do I do guys? I've done a recovery before. My computer has a special Windows XP partition that it accesses it from but I can't seem to get the BIOS to recognize it anymore even though it's listed in the device priority menu. FYI, the BIOS is Phoenix AwardBIOS running on a Compaq Presario, 2.4 Ghz with 1024 MB RAM. I'm tearin' my hear out people! Somebody, PLEASE!!!
