It's so frustrating isn't it!! I'm leaving OH to deal with mine too!

OK, so you've both got your data safe but no operating system. If restore disks/partitions don't work then really, do yourselves a favour. Download and try LinuxMint. If you can't figure out how to download and burn it to a CD, then PM me & I'll tell you where to send a blank CD for me to do it for you. You aren't committing to anything as you can try the system out by running it from the CD without installing. If youlike it, you can then install it. If you don't, you can get Windows fixed one way or another and wait for the next time you get a virus or the registry gets corrupted or whatever. I'm pretty sure if you gave Linux a try, you would free yourselves from that dreaded anticipation! What, exactly, have you got to loose?

Thanks Rich - I'll tell my OH to try the linuxmint.

Hopefully, you'll find it to be the answer to your problems. A lot of people give up on Windows and wonder why they spent years banging their head on a wall!

PM Sent....

Whatever hapens to resolve the issues, do let us know! It might help others, especially as there is the OP and +1 with similar issues on this thread!

The problem that Lynne is experienceing is that her MBR (Master Boot Record) is corrupt.

For those who don't know the MBR is what your laptop/ pc looks for after it has done it Power On System Test (POST) it boots windows if it dosen't find it or another bootable disk it will just sit there and do nothing.

Since Lynne has had problems with her system she has been trying to sort it out but along the way the MBR has been corrupted and the pc has trouble accessing it that’s why it will boot sometimes and then won't.

Software that claim to sort this problem out like fix registry entries and the like can cause this type of problem and cause more problems than they fix.

Lynne is now looking at a reinstall of windows to sort her MBR problem out.

The other problem Lynne had was that she had no windows disk to use to reinstall her operating system......no good contacting MS they wouldn't bother replying if they did they would say that Lynne needs to buy another COA and disk for her to reinstall even though she has got a legit coa for xp pro.

So all anyone needs is the disk as long as you have your coa you can borrow a friends disk to install but use your coa. You are not breaking any copywrite laws or the conditions that you purchased the xp operating system.

MS will say one coa per pc/ laptop and that is what is happening the coa that you will be using has already been bought from MS the first time around either by you or the first owner of the operating system and is being used to reinstall the same os as before.
Its just the same as if you had to install a new hard drive you would have to reinstall windows on to that.

Interesting that it was corrupted enough not to boot but still able to boot occasionally... You'd have thought it was broken or not!

Well mine is mended now - even though hub tried to re install windows from my original disk - it wasn't having it. So he got anothert copy & it's all ok now. He's done various other bits & pieces which blind me with science

Glad to hear yours is OK Tillymint, I have my copy of Windows to try to reinstall later as just home for lunch but fingers crossed I will be sorted by later on.