how to: repair/reload XP from a Flash drive

I would not hold your breath waiting for MS to create a download of XP home if you have a valid license or not.  In fact, I would not count on them for anything.

If you can't get to any web site using a system that is working, that is a problem.

I don't know if copying an old version of XP to the flash drive will work or not - I just make bootable XP Recovery Console flash drives for issues like yours.

You are going to have to fix your missing file problem the old fashioned way.

When you boot into the XP Recovery Console from a flash drive you should be able to just replace your missing file since XP has copies of it on your system in other places.

A copy of the file should be here:

c:\windows\system32\dllcache

or depending on your installation, you might find it here:

c:\windows\ServicePackFiles\i386

But it could be that your unspecified antivirus/antimalwre application qurantined (Effectively deleted) the file.  That is more unknown information, thanks to the MS Answers forum not asking for any system information when a new question is asked (you should be done by now).

It is quite common for the XP Recovery Console or even the XP installation not to recognize SATA drives (at least when booting from CDs).  There are dozens of different notebook models like yours so there is no way for us to know  that you have a SATA drive. 

I have SATA drives too and do not have this problem, but I think my system is afraid of me.

In order to get these SATA drives recognized (usually), you need to enter the BIOS of your system and find the section where the device interface is configured and temporarily change it from SATA to something the Recovery Console will recognize (since I can't see your BIOS, I can't tell you what that is), replace your missing file by copying it, reboot and change the BIOS back to what it was before you started.

Be sure to make a note of any BIOS settings you change so you can change them back when you get done or if your situation deteriorates.

I also suggest Hiren's Boot CD from time to time and they have instructions to download and boot their stuff from a USB drive here.  I have never seen Hiren's require any BIOS adjustment on a SATA drive, but I don't have your system.

If that doesn't work, you should visit the Compaq Support forums where this subject is a frequent topic of discussion.  You are not the first person in the world to need to boot their Compaq mini from a USB device in order to fix something.  This is the Windows XP help forum - not the Compaq help forum.

Good luck waiting on MS to help you!

I think if you can boot UBUNTU from a flash drive that your system supports booting from a flash drive or am I missing something?

Since it has been established that you are indeed able to boot from a USB device, perhaps the Microsoft Support Engineer will continue to supply what comes next?

Is there some reason you are withholding the information about what you are seeing about these bad sectors, the BSOD  and missing DLLs?

You can create a bootable XP Recovery Console flash drive (there are many methods on the Internet - here is a nice video) and from that, you can boot into the XP Recovery Console where you can run chkdsk /r on your HDD to clean up potential bad sectors, and most of the time, if there are DLLs that are suspicious or missing, there are backup copies on your system that you can copy in to replace any suspicious or missing ones.

Part of the problem is we don't know anything about what is wrong with your system, what you are seeing, how it might have gotten this way so can only give general advice, but let's see what the Microsoft Support Engineer comes up with now that the original MSE concern has been addressed.