Hi i do not think you are going to get a way around this mate, you may very well have to do a reinstall of XP here si what you need to do.
make sure that your computer is set to boot with the cd drom as first boot up device (tell me if you know how to do it )
then put the Xp disc in the cd rom drive reboot the computer leaving the disc in the drive, then when the screen comes up it will ask you to press any key so do just that.
then you will come to the screen were it tells you do you want to install XP just follow the instructions it is pretty straight forward. make sure you say yes to format in NTFS it is better and secure.
you will be asked do you agree with the licence ort something similar press F8 to agree
here is a link on how to do it with pictures also, for xp home
http://www.blackviper.com/Articles/O...allxphome1.htm
this is for xp pro
http://www.blackviper.com/Articles/O...tallxppro1.htm
good luck, and by the way to set up your computer to boot from the cd rom first you have to go into your bios to do this when you switch your computer on as it is loading press the delete button on the key board this will take you into your bios use the arown keys on your keyboard to move up and down and use the enter button to get into what you choose.
look for the boot order were it says something like
FLOPPY
HDD 0
CD ROM
So on and make the change were the cd rom is on the top of the order save the changes his enter and now you will have set your computer to boot up from your cd rom first.