System FUBAR due to Deamon Tools

[Serp]

Operating System: Windows XP PRO SP2
Burning Software: Roxio, Nero, Alcohol 120%
Anti-virus Software: Norton Corporate
DAEMON Tools Version: The latest one, forget the number, got it today 9/11/05

Holy crap. I've never seen one piece of software mess up a computer as much as Deamon Tools has to mine! Ok, so I hastily downloaded the latest version of Deamon Tools and installed it. I neglected to read the part where it said "Don't install if you have Roxio easy CD creator."

Well, upon reboot after installation I find that windows froze on the splash screen right before it enters windows, after the black XP loading screen, just the one that appears for a couple of seconds. No problem, I restart. Same problem.

I go into safe mode... same problem.

I go into safe mode and hit esc to cancel the drivers being loaded by Deamon Tools. Same problem.

I insert my XP Pro SP 2 CD to try to reinstall windows. CDBOOT error: NTLDR missing.

I insert the same CD onto my friend's computer, it works fine.

How the hell did Deamon Tools mess up my CD rom drive to the extent of it not loading a WinXP cd! I reset the CMOS (not knowing if it would help), and it didn't, same problem with the CD rom drive.

Does anyone have any idea what steps I should follow now? I'm going to look for some different XP cds to see if they can work..

Please, all suggestios are welcome.

[,jACkdA\W]

How the hell did Deamon Tools mess up my CD rom drive to the extent of it not loading a WinXP cd!

Indeed... NTLDR missing?!?!!?? Is it? Either on your boot partition or on the disk? (It's in \i386 with mine)

[DarkStar251]

Operating System: Windows XP PRO SP2
Burning Software: Roxio, Nero, Alcohol 120%
Anti-virus Software: Norton Corporate
DAEMON Tools Version: 3.47

I think you will find it is not D-T that has done it at all, but Roxio.

Roxio 6 shipped with some REALLY dodgy drivers that were later fixed by this patch: http://www.roxio.com/en/support/MSERR/CDR4_7.jhtml

Its been conflicting with loads of other programs, Grisoft AVG anti virus for example.

It sounds like either your XP cd isnt bootable, (alot of OEM manufacturers ship wierd 'recovery' CDs etc that are not proper Windows CDs) or your system is trying to boot from somewhere else to me, or maybe even that the CD is too scratched. Try nabbing a friends XP cd (perfectly legal to install from a different disk, just use your CD-Key, you still have a license to run it), and check that the system is set to boot from the CD drive first in the BIOS

DT or Roxio couldnt have done that level of damage to the PC!

[Serp]

I got a different XP cd and it worked, really weird.

Oh well. I found it funny how messed my system got, though.

I dunno if I wanna risk installing Deamon Tools again, but if I do, it'll definitely be sans-Roxio.

Does it conflict with Nero, or anything else, or just Roxio?

[,jACkdA\W]

With this strange 'NTLDR missing' message, that definitely sounded like a flawed disk then. And Roxio is the biggest known troublemaker, there shouldn't be problems with Nero (at least none i've heard of).