XP - Crashed

[Aiken]

Kevin Arisa said:

Cars need regular oil changes and the like. It is the nature of machines to need maintenance from time to time. Aren't computers just a machine like any other?

OS is an enviroment. The correct analogy would be changing whole passenger compartment (including steering wheel, pedals and control panel) to the new one twice a year. Sounds silly, isn't it?

[AgentZero]

Actually, since the OS is what runs everything on the computer, it's like having to pull out the engine, strip it donwn to it's basic components, clean them all and stick the whole thing back together, then hope you didn't forget anything. I'm getting ready to to a format and re-install at the moment, but I've run into a problem. I sorta stepped on my WinXP install CD and then lost one of the pieces, so I got a copy off our tech guy at work. Problem it's not a bootable install CD, so if I format my drive I'm going to up a certain creek without a paddle.
Anybody know how to make a bootable install CD for WinXP? I know there's some programs out there that'll make one for you but I can't remember what they're called...

[Captain Kwok]

You can create a set of startup floppies for WinXP (I think you need 6) that loads the necessary items to get the install going from a non-bootable CD.

[AgentZero]

Captain Kwok said:
You can create a set of startup floppies for WinXP (I think you need 6) that loads the necessary items to get the install going from a non-bootable CD.

Hmmm.... Any way of getting that burnt onto a CD? It's just that I don't have any floppies lying around but I've got about 40 blank CDs, so it'd make more sense for me to put it on CD.