thanks everyone for the suggestions. UPDATE: I have finally managedd to get XP reinstalled, but of course much updating had to be done. The error still persists, but I'm now able to boot from the CD, but not hard drive. I'm going to back up what is left, then try the fdisk/MBR deal to see if that clears it up. Otherwise, I may go ahead and zap everything and start over from deep scratch. The real bummer in all this is the fact I KNOW the importance of backing up data, and have warned people about that for quite some time, but I've gotten a bit lazy and have let things slide for awhile... and now have lost many family pictures, etc etc ... lesson learned for the very last time. It won';t happen again

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect......Chief Seattle, 1854