s1xp want to use recovery disk but CD drive dead. HELP!

[cliffski]

I have an s1xp with the recovery disks and with XP installed. XP is slow as hell and need reformatting. Unfortunately the CD drive is DEAD. No amount of reinstalling drivers changes the fact that it doesn't spin the disks or let me select the drive in explorer, or access it at the command prompt/
I don't care, because I never sue the drive anyway, but I DO need to reinstall XP.
I understand that I can only do this using the recovery disks. I even managed to copy the content of the disks to the D drive (over the network) but running autorun just does nothing.
There is no recovery partition and I can't get it to boot from a network (but not really sure how to set that up).
Is there any way to just flipping reinstall the O?S if the CD drive has died? I don't have a USB CD drive or know anyone with one.

Maybe this has been discussed but the geniuses at sony seem to have coded their own craptastic forums with no search facility. hurrah.
Huge thanks for anyone who can possibly help me!

[Blencogo]

If you want to reinstall XP then you should get your DVD/CD-ROM drive fixed. Your Vaio will not boot from ANY external drive except a USB Floppy Drive (which only holds 1.44MB).

Although a replacement drive is cheap, it is a difficult job to change the drive - you have to take the S-Series completely to pieces to replace it. I can email you the manual if you want to have a go.

The alternative is to download the 30 day free trial versions of Tune Up Utilities 2009 or System Mechanic 8 and completely clean and defrag the registry and carry out the other possible optimisations to speed up your system.

[Blencogo]

Oh, just a thought ................

Go to Device Manager and expand DVD/CD-ROM drives.

Is there an error symbol next to the drive? Double-click on the drive. Is there an Error Code?

If there is an error code, your drive may be easily fixed.

[cliffski]

No there is no error. Everything implies the drive is there and working, but I can't select it in explorer and get an I/O error message if I access it at the command prompt.
It doesn't even spin.
I really don't want to buy a new drive I'll never use...