I'm very surprised nobody got the brass ring here.  Especially on older laptops but 
also some compaqs, dells and most laptops, the BIOS is partially contained on a hidden 
partition on the hard drive.  Mostly for guaranteed incompatibilities is my guess 
but "they" also tend to have the entire CDROM driver hosted on this hidden partition 
as well.

So along comes the typical desktop user and destroys the hidden partition by wiping 
or fdisk and with it the CDROM driver and suddenly, the CD won't work which is the 
ususal complaint and problem.  In Helen's case it appears that the CD still works 
well enough to not draw undue attention to itself as the prime problem somehow.  
It doesn't matter as the real problem remains that the hard drive is missing it's 
much needed hidden partition with required BIOS data and program.

Typically the purpose of the Restore CD which comes with these types of computers 
is to create the hidden partition and write the data to it so that the laptop, compaq, 
dell, etc., will now be able to even work properly let alone reinstall Windows.  
Typically also the Windows version is drastically different from that found on a 
generic Windows install CD such that even the flavor of Windows needs to be "special" 
in order to work with the Laptop proper.

Bottom line - without the Restore CD and the Windows installation CD from 
the laptop's manufacturer, you can't get there from here...

Can I interest anybody in a good sized doorstop?

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