mmjm3

Great. Thanks for your incredibly helpful input there.

Hi, The short story is I believe I got a virus on my computer which caused it to go straight to the 'safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt, last known good configuration or start normally' options. However which ever one of these is selected the system automatically restarts. If safe mode or one of its options is choosen then a list of drivers will show up just before the system shuts down. Anyway, I have used a bootable CD copy of Ubuntu (Linux) to gain access to the hard drive and retrieve all my important documents. Although the computer reads this CD as bootable, it does not even register the Windows XP CD (it is a burnt copy by the way). I have also tried a copy of my friend Windows 7 CD and it does not register that on the start up screen - it just goes straight to the safe mode options. I really need to boot Windows to either repair it or just do a full re-install. It seems like the computer just has a problem with booting from Windows CD's. Does anyone have any ideas? Would formatting the hard drive in Ubuntu help? Thanks.