Windows XP Pro - with SP2 downloaded and installed
No hardware changes, bios updates, or software installations recently, latest Kaspersky Online Scan for viruses (two days ago) was clean, used computer as normal yesterday, shut it down, and today got the Windows did no start succesfully, boot in safe mode or start normally screen. All options result in a reboot loop. When starting in safe mode it stalls on the gagp30kx.sys driver.
So I googled that, and it seems like the first thing I should try is replacing that driver or try a windows "repair". Only heres the problem, I can't boot my Windows XP CD - my CDROM has gone AWOL. When I enter the boot menu and select to boot from the CD-Rom first, it just skips over it like it's not there. But when I put the windows disk into the CD-ROM drive I hear it rev up and start whirring.
I have the Windows XP set-up disks which I used to get the CD-ROM working the first time so I could install Windows, but I am hesitant to re-use those, because I don't know if they will set me up for a complete Windows re-install, which I would like to avoid if possible.
I also used a DOS boot disk to see if I could get a look inside the drivers directory on the harddrive, but it wouldn't read the c: drive or the cd-rom drive even though it had IDE drivers installed for cd-rom.
Any recommended courses of action? Or should I just chuck the computer out a window?
...grateful for any assistance. Thanks!