CD & DVD & CDR help

I recently installed xp for weeks it ran for perfectly then all of a suden, it stopped reading data cds threw windows explorer saying that its a corrupted cd or not the corect format. the weird thing is that it still reads DVD’s and plays them. It also plays audio cds threw media player but wont read them threw windows explorere. i was told to uninstall windows and re-install it but if the drive doesnt work how can i use the bootable cd. Note i have two hardrives and two cd drives dvd and cdr.
any help would be great