How do I get my computer to boot from external DVD drive?

[ip]

Hey guys & gals, here's my problem.

I'm working on my Sony Vaio Laptop (VGN-S170P) which is 3+ years old and whose internal DVD burner doesn't work anymore. I reformatted the computer yesterday and reinstalled Win XP Pro after making the Sony Recovery discs. Once I got up & running I decided to use Partition Magic to recoup the 8 Gb or so that Sony designates for recovery. It wasn't needed anymore, as I made the discs.

So, after deleting the partition and merging the drives, I goit a message that ... hal.dll is either not found or corrupted. Windows will not start. I tried booting from my external DVD drive (USB) but Windows won't recognize it. I looked in my BIOS to see if there's a way to get it to recognize USB, but found nothing.

How do I get Windows to boot from my external DVD drive? I have no problem reinstalling Windows from scratch as I just did it yesterday.

Many thanks.

 

[montag451]

Hi,
If your BIOS doesn't give you an option to boot from external drive or USB device, then it is possible you are stuffed.

 

[cprince]

See if you can boot from floppy disks. Go here to download the Windows XP floppy boot disks(there are six of them): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994

Once you have booted(from floppy) into Windows setup, maybe there's a way for windows setup to see the USB DVD drive and run setup from there. Good luck!

 

[RebateMonger]

Just get a new internal CD or DVD drive. If you don't, you'll regret it anyway, since there's not much you can do in this world without a working CD or DVD drive.

And don't delete the Recovery Partition on a computer unless you have FACTORY recovery CDs/DVDs.