Formatting problems D:<

[klarrix]

While I was formatting my pc (XP sp2 home) earlier, my dad accidentally walked into the power cable causing the computer to shut down mid-installation..

I thought it wouldn't be a problem, and that I could just reformat it again, but on further attempts I can only reach the part shortly after you accept the User Agreement where it asks to hit ENTER so it can check the CD drive. Shortly after I do this it displays the message "Setup could not read the CD or the CD is not a valid windows CD" and tells me to put in a valid windows xp/2000 disc to continue (despite a legit one already being in there).

I then have the choice of restarting (and eventually arriving at the same place again) or checking the disc again, which gets me nowhere.

Any suggestions?

[mike_w]

Try a different CD drive (if you have one)? Make sure the disc isn't scratched, damaged, etc. (even though it worked before, I've found that damaged discs can work half the time, yet just fail other times). You could also try putting a small Linux distribution on, just to make sure the CD drive is working.

[TheDarkRealm]

You cound always try setting the HDD up in dos (manual FDISK and format) then copy this installation files from the CD to the HDD, if the files copy over correctly then you can guarantee the disk is ok.
You could launch XP setup from the HDD be finding and running the file winnt in the i386 folder, and see how you get on from there.