Can't boot from CD
 

So my dumbshit wife installed spyware on my computer. Popup ads, resource depletion, funny sounds, the whole nine yards. Tried Windows Defender and AdAware. Didn't do shit.

Going to reinstall windows, but haha, funny story, my Dell Windows disk won't accept my key. The wonderful tech support (which won't help me that much, since my warranty is expired), told me I have to install from a boot, or at least that's what I surmise from what they tell me.

I borrowed a Windows XP Pro cd from my dad, but it's an older version and says I have to boot it from install also.

When I press F12 while booting, it doesn't give me an option to boot from CD drive. I tried changing the boot order in BIOS, but the BIOS says my CD drive is not installed. It's currently residing on my IDE primary (primary is the plug in the middle of the cable, right?)

HALP!

Maybe Dell has some sort of hidden partition where you can reinstall Windows? Also, how can the disc ask for a key if you can't even boot from CD?

What's the model of your Dell?

It asks for the key when I try running the computer when already booted up into windows.

Dimension 3000

If this installation is a recent occurence, maybe you can use System Restore to roll back to a less dumbshit period? :)

You're not under warrenty.

Open the machine up. If you can obtain another ribbon cable, plug the optical drive (your cdrom) into another IDE slot.

Try formatting it that way.

Okay, crisis...somewhat averted. APPARENTLY I got mixed up between SECONDARY IDE slots and SLAVE IDE slots. I remember the drive trying to boot before, so I don't remember when or why I changed it in the BIOS.

So after that, the Dell dude was right, my windows disk didn't ask for product key when installing from a boot load.

And it doesn't really hurt to have a fresh install of Windows every now and then.

And then I lost the two screws I took out of the DVD drive, which sucked, but when I got into my little box with extra screws in it, I found my 1GB USB drive I lost almost a year ago when I moved!

Score. Kinda.