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I have an old Toshiba Amilo. I had to reinstall Windows XP on my computer as it seemed to have a virus. I did the install thing where you don't need to restart and run from CD. Now, the problem is that by some weird reason, it never finishes the installation, and then restarts. When it restarts, it will start always from about the beginning, so it's a circle.

I tried booting from the XP CD, and it recognizes there's a CD-ROM in the drive (it asks me to press a key if I want to boot from CD), but then starts making noises and I can hear the CD jumping inside the disk drive, so I guess it is broken.

Is there any way I can reinstall the OS on this computer? Or is it a lost cause? This computer is kinda old and out of warranty.

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After you press a key to boot the CD, how long did you wait? Sometimes the initial screen takes a little while to come up. It will take even longer on old hardware, especially if you have a slower CD drive. Give it a few minutes and see what happens.

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I do it instantly. That is not the issue. Because even if I wasn't pressing it fast enough, it'd lead me to my "old" windows installation. – devoured elysium Jan 21 '10 at 5:06
Ah, now that I reread what you said, I've waited for more than an hour. So I guess that is not the issue. – devoured elysium Jan 21 '10 at 5:07
Sounds like a problem with the CD drive itself then, or it's connector on the motherboard. If you have a spare one around, give that a go. – John T Jan 21 '10 at 5:24
It's a laptop. Hard to do it (at least I don't know how). – devoured elysium Jan 21 '10 at 9:23
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If you think your drive is busted it may be time for a new laptop anyway. But if you must keep it then go get yourself an external drive that connects via usb and install it that way.

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If the drive is bad, there's a standard laptop CD drive form factor and interface. May require some googling to find the exact removal procedure for your system, but odds are in your favor that the drive could be replaced easily.

Or, if you can borrow a USB drive like RobertWHurst stated, that might work for you too!

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But do USB-Drives work without having to install them? This computer already has some years. Wouldn't in that case just be better to put WinXp on a USB pen? – devoured elysium Jan 21 '10 at 16:17
On an older machine, a CD USB drive is more likely to be bootable than a USB flash drive. – Brian Knoblauch Jan 21 '10 at 18:18
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