From: user@domain.invalid   
      
   > downloaded The Ultimate Boot CD and burned it and tried to use it and it   
   wouldn't even boot to that.   
      
   Did you make sure the PC is configured in the BIOS to boot from CD?   
   Obvious question, I know, but probably 90% of problems are solved with   
   the obvious question. ;) The other obvious issue... did you burn it as   
   bootable/ISO?   
      
   If you can get it to boot with _something_, I recently resurrected a PC   
   that would not boot normally or in Safe Mode. I booted it with a   
   utilities CD and that disk's software reported "The following registry   
   hive is missing or corrupt. SOFTWARE".   
      
   I then ran CHKDSK.EXE. In fact, I ran it and it hung. I rebooted, ran it   
   and it hung. Rebooted, ran it and it hung. Rebooted, ran it and it   
   reported replacing 2 bad clusters in SOFTWARE. When CHKDSK finished, it   
   finished with "An unspecified error occurred." I wondered if the error   
   was the one that was reported fixed or one that occurred at the end. I   
   ran CHKDSK for the 5th time and it ended normally and reported no   
   errors. Then I took the CD out of the drive, rebooted, BINGO! the XP   
   installation was restored and booted normally.   
      
   So... If you have a bad installation that will not boot, boot with   
   something else, run CHKDSK repeatedly until it completes without errors,   
   then see if you can boot. Time-consuming, yes. Simple, yes. Recovering   
   an essentially dead system, priceless. :)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)