Quote:

He's tried booting from the CD and selecting repair - but he says that just ends up dropping him into a command prompt and doesn't actually do anything. To be specific, after selecting the repair option it asks for his admin password - he doesn't remember setting one so he pressed enter which drops him to the prompt. If he types some random incorrect password it says it's wrong.



That's the "Repair Console", which is one step earlier. He needs to select "Install Windows XP" (or whatever) and then select Repair Install when it gives the option.

Gareth