Ok I'm stuck here, when I select the Boot Menu and then select the CD-ROM drive, it says it's not available - and to either strike F1 to retry boot, or F2 for setup utility. The first time, I went to setup utility and changed the boot order so the drive was first. Then I went back the boot menu to retry, same message. I turned off the PC, turned it back on, still not booting from CD. Turn off and on again, hit F12 to access boot menu, select CD drive, same thing...F1 to try again or F2 for setup utility. And F1 does nothing but repeat the message.

:confused:

If you're sure that everything is right in the BIOS as far as boot order and any particular items are checked off regarding to booting from CD, including the BIOS recognizing the drive, and you're still not booting from the CD, then there's either a problem with your CD drive or the CD itself. Is it a DVD, CD, CDRW, etc? Look at the format of the CD itself then make sure that your drive can actually read that particular media.
If the media is compatible with the drive, then it's probably the drive itself... in which case you may want to borrow someone's external usb CD drive. Otherwise, if you can't boot from CD then your computer is effectively a boat anchor.

Well I hadn't experienced any problems with the drive prior to my virus/malware issues, and it's most definitely a CD and not a DVD. Luckily I have an internal DVD drive too and just tried that, with luck! I had tried it already yesterday, but that was prior to figuring out how to force it to boot from the drive. Now I'm in the blue screen with a bunch of stuff loading from the CD...this is a good sign.

Just pressed R for Recovery Console...didn't get an option to log in to the admin account, though. It says I can type EXIT to quit Recovery Console and restart the computer, and below that it says exactly this:

There is a white square after the question mark, and that's it...I don't see any installation options. If I hit enter, it shows the Dell logo with loading bar (like when you first turn it on) then goes to a blank black screen forever.

Thanks for your continued assistance. :)

Press 1 and then hit enter

After that, you should get your password prompt. Let me know if it accepts your password, or lack thereof, and brings you to the >C:\ prompt.

Doh...I was expecting options below the question, not above. :o:

password entered and apparently accepted, now I have the C:\WINDOWS> prompt.

I went back to your previous post for the next step...but I don't know how to do this:

Ok. Phew. The rest is just a little tedious, but at least you're over the potentially dead-in-water problems.

Ok I'll start typing out the commands but I need to get my XP cd and find the location of the file first, so I'll get right back to you. Just hold tight for a bit.

Ok type the commands below and press enter after each line. If at any point you enter one of the commands and it says something was incorrect, let me know. I haven't done this kind of thing in a while so it's possible I could get some syntax wrong, but it's pretty simple.
Also, I'm going to use the standard CDrom drive letter, D: but yours may be different. You need to know what drive letter the drive your CD is on. To do this, first type:

CD.. (This will back you out of the Windows directory and bring you to the root of C)
CD D: (Changes directory to D)
DIR (Will list the files and directories of the D drive. If you see I386, Setup, Support...that's the XP cd drive and this will be the drive letter you'll use. If not, then try CD E: then enter the DIR command and keep doing this until you find that you're in the XP CD.)

I'll assume by this point you've found what your drive letter is. For the sake of the rest of these commands, I'll assume your CD drive with the XP CD in it is the D: drive.

Do the following. (each line is a separate command. Press enter after each line)

CD C:
CD WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS
DIR (Locate volsnap.sys to verify it's there)
DEL volsnap.sys
DIR (Ensure volsnap.sys is gone)
COPY D:\I386\volsnap.sys C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\volsnap.sys
DIR (Locate volsnap.sys to verify it's there)


If that all goes off without a hitch, I think you can type EXIT or END or something to get out of Recovery Console. When you're out of recovery console, restart your computer and while that's happening go ahead and kick the CD out so it doesn't try to boot to it again.
See if Windows will start normally. Let me know what happens.

Problem with the first one. After I type CD.. it says the command is not recognized. If I type just CD it still gives me the C:\WINDOWS> prompt, so I'm guessing it's not backing out of Windows.

edit: never mind, progressing...

Ok after I type in CD WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS and hit enter, it says "the system cannot find the file or directory specified."

Ok, I'm used to backing out of directories on command console... I think in Recovery Console there needs to be a space between the CD and the two periods. Here's the revised version:

CD .. (This will back you out of the Windows directory and bring you to the root of C)
CD D: (Changes directory to D)
DIR (Will list the files and directories of the D drive. If you see I386, Setup, Support...that's the XP cd drive and this will be the drive letter you'll use. If not, then try CD E: then enter the DIR command and keep doing this until you find that you're in the XP CD.)

I'll assume by this point you've found what your drive letter is. For the sake of the rest of these commands, I'll assume your CD drive with the XP CD in it is the D: drive.

Do the following. (each line is a separate command. Press enter after each line)

CD C:
CD WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS
DIR (Locate volsnap.sys to verify it's there)
DEL volsnap.sys
DIR (Ensure volsnap.sys is gone)
COPY D:\I386\volsnap.sys C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\volsnap.sys
DIR (Locate volsnap.sys to verify it's there)

I'm assuming you've already ascertained your CDROM drive letter, correct?
If so, you either need to be back in the C: directory before you CD to the windows\system32\drivers directory... Or you could simply do:

CD C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS

If that doesn't work, then just do:

CD C:
CD WINDOWS
CD SYSTEM32
CD DRIVERS