How can I reload Pre-installed XP from the hardrive with no recovery or XP disk?

[cekoch]

My sisters packard bell notebook model (easynote) E-3242 running windows XP. The problem is that the recovery disk is long gone and after installing SP2 XP wont load, even in safe mode. I already used cd-bootable Knoppix to copy all documents i needed to rescue. At this point a Re-install would be great but alas, no install disk came with this silly PB! And my sister lost the recovery discs she made.(if she ever made them) I do not have any XP disc available even my own 2 copies.
How can I begin a re-install from the Hardisk when I cant even get to the Dos-prompt.

 

[FlashDude]

After sp2 is installed you can't install a pre sp2 copy of xp, In windows that is. I don't recomend this method but you could just go to add/remove programs and uninstall sp2 then intall xp. I recomend you boot from the xp cd and format and install a fresh copy of xp. Just make sure your bios is set to boot from cd. after set up is done installing the preinstall then delete the partition's and select format with ntfs quick. You will loose all your data so do backup's.

 

[cekoch]

I cant access add/remove, I cant even get winXP to load even in Safe mode. And---NO Discs-Recovery or XP.

 

[FlashDude]

Borrow one from someone, and use her key.

 

[EricB]

get a bart pe cd. boot from it and look for a I386 folder on her C drive. let me know if she have one

 

[cekoch]

I"ll look into a bart cd, I actually saw that file i386 on her hardrive while using the cd-bootable Knoppix linux program to copy all of her important files. What is it?

 

[Osiris]

The i386 folder holds the files used to install, repair, modify, update and rebuild Windows. Though these files are also located on your Windows installation CD (if you have one), I recommend you not delete anything located here. Deleting these files wonÂ’t recover much room, and the convenience of having the files there save a lot of time for us techie-types. (The contents of the i386 folder can commonly be found in the folder at C:\Windows\Options\Cabs. This Windows "cabs" folder is essentially the same as the i386 folder.)

 

[EricB]

if you hit the winnt.exe in the system 32 folder, you can reinstall. if you have a usb hdd you can copy that folder to it and do a fresh install.