Need to access my hard. Ntldr & ntdetect. were deleteted(my kid is learning with me). I did not have the admin password so I did a repair install over an inaccessable windows xp. Inaccessable because of the missing ntldr & ntdetect. Ntldr & ntdetect are ok now of course, since the repair install started but did not finish properly, because I think I used the wrong windows xp install cd (with a different product key), because at the end of the install & now that I can boot to the hard drive, my system tries to complete the install by "continuing setup". This fails each time and reboots, when asked to insert the windows xp cd (I think that if I had the cd with the correct product key the install would complete) the system reboots each time and continues to the point of asking for the xp cd.
I don't have that cd. I have a different xp cd than the one installed now.
I'm thinking. Can I use linux (DSL) to copy the data I have in c:\program files to d:\whatever, format my hard drive, & install another copy of windows xp.
It seems that this would be a great solution to this problem I created by not backing up my son's system.
It is an amd 750MHZ with 256 MB of ram, usb,

I think I had this problem once with my other computer...

When you boot does a menu flash for about a second? Something about booting Windows or Windows (Original)? If so, next time you boot, move the arrow keys up and down b4 youy get to the screen, so that when it comes up, the auto-choose option doesn't automatically go to that "Continue Setup".

If not, try to see if booting safe mode allows you to enter taht menu. If you do, pick the Original (I think its that one) and you should be able to boot into Windows. ONce in there you can back up all yoru stuff, and even just fix that prob by checking your boot.ini.

Right-clik on My COmputer
Advanced tab
Startup and Recovery Setttings
Default should be:

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS

I tihnk what the XP install does is add some setup files to the first partition (hda1, or w/e you wanna call it, most ocmputers have 2 partitions premade) and XP is usually on hda2. The boot.ini is somehoew editted during this and when a messed up install happens, this boot.ini is left with the option to boot the first partition, which brings you to that continue setup screen.

Hopes this works