When it boots up it goes to a d prompt and error message says command or file name not reconized

Try going into safe mode with command prompt enabled. (F8 on bootup). In command console type chkdsk /f /r and enter y for yes at the prompt. Wait for it to finish. If that doesn't solve it try typing fixmbr.

First of all I'm not this smart. I found it and pasted it here for you from:
http://www.pcpowerguide.com/windows/damaged-mbr-error-message/

They get all the credit!

MBR is the acronym for Master Boot Record. The master boot record is located in the boot section of your hard drive, which is the first sector on the first platter. When you boot your computer, the master boot record tells the computer's BIOS (Basic Input Output System) where to find the bootstrap code for the operating system.
So if the MBR is corrupted, the BIOS can't find the operating system and you can get error messages like the following ones:

• Missing operating system
• Error loading system
• Invalid partition table

Looks pretty scary, doesn't it?
However, it is usually not that hard to fix a corrupted MBR and usually the rest f the hard drive is just fine and will boot normally once your fix the master boot record.
What Causes Damage to the MBR? A lot of things can cause damage to the MBR such as viruses designed to corrupt the boot sector. Some of them copy the original MBR to another file. Others do this by overwriting the MBR with virus code. In fact viruses and malware are one of the most frequent causes but, any file can become corrupted especially files that are accessed as frequently as the MBR.
How to Fix the MBR The stapes to fix the MBR are slightly different in the different versions of Windows. So I will cover them separately.
Windows XP

1. Insert your XP installation disk in the CD-Rom and reboot the computer
2. When asked, press any key to boot from the CD
3. When you get the Welcome to Setup screen, press "R" to open the repair console
4. Enter your administrator password when prompted
5. At the command prompt, type fixmbr and press enter
6. When a new command prompt appears, type exit
7. Remove your installation CD
8. Restart the computer

Windows Vista

1. Insert your Vista installation disk in the CD-ROM and reboot the computer
2. When asked, press any key to boot from the CD
3. When you get the Install Windows screen, fill in the language and location options and then click Next
4. Click on the Repair your computer option
5. Select the Windows Vista operating system and click Next
6. Enter your administrator password when prompted
7. In the System Recovery Options, select Command Prompt
8. When a command prompt appears, type bootrec.exe and press enter to fix the MBR
9. When a new command prompt appears, type exit
10. Remove your installation CD
11. Click Restart in the System Recovery Options window

Windows 7

1. Insert your Windows 7 installation disk in the CD-ROM and reboot the computer
2. When asked, press any key to boot from the CD
3. When you get the Install Windows screen, fill in the language, Time and Keyboard Input options and then click Next
4. Click on the Repair your computer option
5. In the System Recovery Options, select Command Prompt
6. When a command prompt appears, change to the boot directory
7. Now type bootsect /nt60 SYS and press enter to fix the MBR
8. When a new command prompt appears, type exit
9. Remove your installation CD
10. Reboot the computer

To resolve this issue, start the computer from the Windows XP CD, start the Recovery Console, and then use the Bootcfg.exe tool to rebuild the Boot.ini file. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Configure the computer to start from the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. For information about how to do this, see your computer documentation, or contact your computer manufacturer.
2. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.
3. When you receive the "Press any key to boot from CD" message, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.
4. When you receive the "Welcome to Setup" message, press R to start the Recovery Console.
5. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you have to use from the Recovery Console.
6. When you are prompted, type the administrator password, and then press ENTER.
7. At the command prompt, type bootcfg /list, and then press ENTER. The entries in your current Boot.ini file appear on the screen.
8. At the command prompt, type bootcfg /rebuild, and then press ENTER. This command scans the hard disks of the computer for Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000, or Microsoft Windows NT installations, and then displays the results. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to add the Windows installations to the Boot.ini file. For example, follow these steps to add a Windows XP installation to the Boot.ini file:
   1. When you receive a message that is similar to the following message, press Y: Total Identified Windows Installs: 1
      
      [1] C:\Windows
      Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All)
   2. You receive a message that is similar to the following message: Enter Load Identifier This is the name of the operating system. When you receive this message, type the name of your operating system, and then press ENTER. This is either Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.
   3. You receive a message that is similar to the following: Enter OS Load options When you receive this message, type /fastdetect, and then press ENTER.
      
      Note The instructions that appear on your screen may be different, depending on the configuration of your computer.
9. Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Recovery Console. Your computer restarts, and the updated boot list appears when you receive the "Please select the operating system to start" message.

Hi,
There are so many reasons boot up; i.e if system files corrupted by virus or hard disk index tables corruption or hdd partions corruption.

So as a initial trouble shooting try to do following things to resolve problem.

Option 1:

1. Power ON your computer and Press F8 key to have Windows boot menu option

2. Select "Safe Mode with Command Prompt" and Press Enter
3. When command prompt loaded then type follwing command and press enter

chkdsk /r c:

(If this command is not working in "safe mode with command prompt" then start computer with Bootable CD and Press "R" key when first time asked. It will open recovery console and type this "chkdsk /r "command again to repair disk.)

This command will scan your hdd and repair disk errors.

Option 2 :

To repair your windows without losing your data.
Start Computer with bootable CD
Press R when it is asked to press.
It will repair windows.
Note : Please read Status Bar and screen messages /nstructions carfully (while Booting computer thru Bootable CD)

Hi, Boot into Safe Mode by pressing F8 at bootup and choose
'Safe mode with command prompt'

At the command prompt type
C:\Windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

Hopefully System Restore will open so choose a Restore Point a few days ago.
Please rate my response!! Thanks, SF

1. Configure the computer to start from the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. For information about how to do this, see your computer documentation, or contact your computer manufacturer.
2. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.
3. When you receive the "Press any key to boot from CD" message, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.
4. When you receive the "Welcome to Setup" message, press R to start the Recovery Console.
5. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you have to use from the Recovery Console.
6. When you are prompted, type the administrator password, and then press ENTER.
7. At the command prompt, type bootcfg /list, and then press ENTER. The entries in your current Boot.ini file appear on the screen.
8. At the command prompt, type bootcfg /rebuild, and then press ENTER. This command scans the hard disks of the computer for Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000, or Microsoft Windows NT installations, and then displays the results. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to add the Windows installations to the Boot.ini file. For example, follow these steps to add a Windows XP installation to the Boot.ini file:
   1. When you receive a message that is similar to the following message, press Y: Total Identified Windows Installs: 1
      
      [1] C:\Windows
      Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All)
   2. You receive a message that is similar to the following message: Enter Load Identifier This is the name of the operating system. When you receive this message, type the name of your operating system, and then press ENTER. This is either Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.
   3. You receive a message that is similar to the following: Enter OS Load options When you receive this message, type /fastdetect, and then press ENTER.
      
      Note The instructions that appear on your screen may be different, depending on the configuration of your computer.
9. Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Recovery Console. Your computer restarts, and the updated boot list appears when you receive the "Please select the operating system to start" message.

That is not an error, Windows is trying to verify that there are no issues with your hard disk. Is what you wrote above all that you see? If so then check disk is freezing before it completes. Try to cancel the chkdsk before it starts by pressing any button when it prompts you to, log into windows, back up everything up that you need and restart your laptop. Worst case scenario you need to reinstall windows on your laptop

Method 1

Edit the Boot.ini file to restore or correct the Default entry and to ensure that the other entries in the [Operating Systems] section of the Boot.ini file point to the appropriate directories.


Method 2

Use the Bootcfg utility in the Recovery Console to correct the Boot.ini file:

1. Use the Windows XP CD-ROM to start your computer.
2. When you receive the message to press R to repair Windows by using the Recovery Console, press the R key.
3. Select the Windows installation that you want, and then type the administrator password when prompted.
4. Type bootcfg /rebuild, and then press ENTER.
5. When the Windows installation is located, the following instructions are displayed:
Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All)
[Type Y in response to this message.]

Enter Load Identifier:
[This is the name of the operating system. Type Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Home Edition.]

Enter OS Load options:
[Leave this field blank, and then press ENTER].
After you perform the preceding steps, restart the computer, and then select the first item on the boot menu. This should allow Windows XP to start normally.

After Windows XP has successfully loaded, the Boot.ini can be modified to remove the incorrect entry.


Method 3

1. Start the computer by using your Windows XP CD-ROM. Press any key to boot from the CD.
2. After the setup files are finished loading press R to repair using Recovery Console.
3. When you are in the recovery console, select the installation to log on to (usually number 1), and then press ENTER.
4. Login to the Administrator account by typing the password for this account, and then press ENTER.
5. At the recovery console command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

For Uni-Processor systems:
expand <cd-drive>:\i386\ntoskrnl.ex_ <hd-drive>:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
For Multi-Processor systems:
expand <cd-drive>:\i386\ntkrnlmp.ex_ <hd-drive>:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Note In these two commands, the <cd-drive> placeholder represents the drive letter of your CD drive, and the <hd-drive> placeholder represents the drive letter of the hard disk on which windows is installed.
6. If you receive a prompt to overwrite the file, press Y.
7. Type exit, and press ENTER at the command prompt.

Method 4
Start the computer by using the Recovery Console, and then run theCHKDSK /rcommand.

Note You do not have to include the /p switch in the Chkdsk command-line because the /r switch causes the Chkdsk utility to locate bad sectors and recover readable information. This command implies the /p switch..

How to Format a Hard Disk

After you create the partitions, you must format the partitions:

Restart your computer with the Startup disk in the floppy disk drive.

NOTE: If you are using a Windows 95 Startup disk, a command prompt is displayed and you can skip to step 2. If you are using a Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, or Windows Me Startup disk, select the Start computer without CD-ROM support menu option when the Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed.


2. When a command prompt is displayed, type format c: /s and then press ENTER. This command transfers the system files and should only be used when you format drive C (or your "active" drive). For all other partitions, type format drive: (where drive is the letter of the partition that you want to format).

NOTE: If you receive a "Bad command" or "Bad file name" error message, you may need to extract the Format.com tool to your boot disk. To do this, type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:

Extract ebd.cab format.com

After the Format.com tool is extracted to your boot disk, type format c: /s t a command prompt to format your active partition, or type format drive: if you want to format a partition that is not your active partition.

3. When you successfully run the Format.com tool, you receive the following message:
WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST!
Proceed with Format?

4. Press Y, and then press ENTER to format drive C.

5. After the format procedure is finished, you receive the following message:
Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?

NOTE: This is an optional feature that you can use to type a name for the drive. You can either type an 11-character name for the drive, or you can leave it blank by pressing ENTER.

take windows xp cd and repair from the cd