Please help a noob!!

[frenzy]

I recently bought a used laptop from a local guy, but after using it for about a month without any problems I was looking for a way to erase everything, and start from the scratch fresh again just like when I bought it.
I remember that my old compaq came with a factory restore CD, and all I had to do was..just pop the CD in, and it took care of the rest. Within 30min I would have a fresh setup again.
This laptop only came with windows xp professional(academic version)CD, and a driver CD.
I tried, and tried, to restore it back but no luck.. so I kinda got frustrated, and just decided to pop the windows xp CD and reinstall the window.. I noticed that there is 1 partition already in use, and 1 partition that was free but with only 8mb.
I tried to delete the partition that was already in use, but it would not let me delete it. I tried to delete the partition that was not in use but it would not let me delete either, or create since the one that is not in use has 8mb.
I just went ahead, and chose the partition that was already in use to reinstall the window since that was the only partition that would let me do anything.
After couple of warning notices..it started to install the window.
After everything was done..the window restarted, and .... it changed for the worst. I can't hear any sound, it won't even detect my modem anymore.. and all the files are still there, and most of them are not in working condition.
I retried what I said above again to see if it was going to change anything, and it surely did.
This time error notice would come on with a blue background, and it would automatically restart my comp. If I start my window in anything other than safe mode than it would show the error, and restart.
Gosh.. I am so frustrated right now

Can someone please help me bring my laptop back in right state..

 

[ekÆsine]

that 8MB is reserved for converting a basic NTFS disk into a dynamic disk. you cannot delete it normally, just ignore it..i mean 8MB is not worth getting stressed over. none of your devices work because you have no drivers installed for them.

i think what you did was a install of winXP over the old winXP, that may be why you still see old files. redo the install except this time delete all partitions (D, & L commands) and create a new partition (C). format your newly created partition with 'Full format, NTFS' options.

go through the rest of the winXP setup and after that is done find & install the drivers for your devices on the driver CD.

 

[frenzy]

What I did was I went into BIO and made it boot from the CD, and that gave me an option to delete the partition and start a new one.
When I just started regularly, and popped the install CD in.. it would not let me delete the partitions.
Now everything is working, and as of matter of fact the xp is installing while I'm typing(on my compaq)as of right now.

You said to install the drivers for my modem, and soundcard?
Is there a website where I can DL everything I need from?

Thanks

 

[ekÆsine]

look around on the driver CD that you have. if you cannot find it on there read the make/ model of your laptop, example: compaq presario 3540. search for the manufacturer's website using google.com . look on that website and download your drivers for that laptop. this is the most common way.

 

[Apokalipse]

restore CD's are not very good to use, especially if you change your hardware, and also the software on it can get out of date.
what are the specs of the computer you are reinstalling?

 

[frenzy]

Not too fancy..
256 ram, PIII, 700mhz, 30gigs,
Ashton Digital passport 2000
Windows XP Professional.

Is it true that upgrade for laptop's are limited?
I want to upgrade to P4, 2ghz-up.
I know that I can upgrade ram, and HD, but what about upgrading to P4??

What are my options?

 

[Apokalipse]

laptops are only limited by hardware (because they have to cram it in a small case) but they are totally upgradable, replacing the CPU won't be a big deal (appart from $)