fixing someone's pc..

[bustone]

im trying to fix a computer that has windows XP and 98 both installed (when you boot up it asks you to choose your OS). you cant get into either of them. the person is looking for me to completely reformat the computer. i tried putting in the XP cd and starting the comp, says press any key to go into xp setup... but it just freezes. im not very familiar with recovery type procedures cause i've never really messed my pc up. any suggestions?

 

[Zlash]

Freezes at what screen, the black screen when you hit a key to boot up off the XP cd or after the XP cd has booted up and started loading it's stuff?

 

[bustone]

press any key to load xp setup cd..

<presses a key>

screen goes into a blinking underscore.

that's as far as i get

 

[alrocky]

Do you have a Win98 boot floopy?

 

[bustone]

not an original, i tried making one using

http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10106-100-5211181.html?tag=st.dl.10001-103-1.lst-7-2.5211181

but it told me invalid system disk and did not take it