Windows XP recovery

I've been trying to restore my windows XP desktop back to the way I received it. When I bought the PC, it did not come with XP instillation disks. Instead, my knowledgeable friend created recovery disks so that I could do a restore back to the beginning. I hit F10 to call up the recovery process during loading with the CD in the tray. It then brings up a prompt asking me where I wanted to logon.

This is where I need help. I'm logged onto C:\WINDOWS but have no idea how to get the restore data off the CD and into the recovery process. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hey!
Can you logon to windows? or it doesn't start? Well you can repair Windows XP with the CD. Boot from CD and don't press any key till it prompts 3 options :
Press Enter Install Windows XP now
Press 'R' to repair XP from recovery console
Exit Windows XP setup
On this screen press Enter to select first option. Then press F8 to accept the licence agreement when it appears. Then it will automatically detect your Windows XP that is already installed and will prompt you to press 'R' to repair and Esc to continue, here press 'R' and it will repair your windows installation. This will keep all the files, data, software as it is and you will have no problems then...! All the best!

I am not given those choices in the "System Restore" menu. What they give me when I hit F10 at the loading screen is:

"Windows XP Home Edition
Windows XP Home Edition
Windows System Recovery"

I highlight the last and hit enter, then it loads up 3 options:

D:/i386
C:/WINDOWS
J:/WINDOWS

When I enter C:/WINDOWS I am able to use a few commands like a command prompt. I don't ever see the 3 options that you mentioned.

EDIT: I realized I didn't answer your questions. I cannot log into windows, whenever it tries to load XP it crashes and gives me a blue screen. I don't know how to boot from the CD so if you could tell me how to do that maybe I can get to the point you mentioned then be able to handle it from there :)

Hey!
You will need a Windows XP boot CD. If your Windows XP is genuine purchased copy then you must have a CD of it. If you lost it you can borrow it from a friend. It must be a bootable windows XP CD not a recovery disk. Select first boot device : CD-ROM. It will boot from CD saying "Press any key to boot from CD..." There press any key. It will start loading files, let it continue and then you will get the options that i mentioned in the previous post. All the best!

That's the only problem is that I don't have the CD even though I did buy the PC and Windows was not pirated :(. Is there a way to download the boot CD content and burn it via my laptop? I saw a bunch of boot 'disk' downloads but those are all for floppy disks.

Hey!
Well if you have the windows XP cd's content saved on your disk you can use it to install XP. In such case you will a DOS bootable. Boot from dos and follow the steps mentioned here : http://forums.techarena.in/guides-tutorials/1121265.htm. You can also refer this thread : http://forums.techarena.in/software-...nt/1139459.htm