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This should be quite simple. What model motherboard do you have? Please let me know in your next post.

Try this - boot from the Windows XP CD. Make sure you have USB drive attached. At the first window Press R - to repair windows using Recovery Console. Select windows installation, enter administrator which will most likely be blank.

At the prompt type: format c: /q /fs:ntfs

This will format the hard drive to get rid of the failed XP install. After this has finished try the following:

Change the drive letter to your USB drive. It will probably E:\ unless you have 2 cd drives. to do this type cd e:\ or e:\
At the prompt type DIR. Make sure you have the i386 folder on the flash drive.
Then type: copy e:\i386 c:\
This will copy the i386 folder to the c: drive.

Now change back to c:\ drive. Type cd c:\ or c:\
type: cd i386
type: winnt.exe
This will start the XP setup process installing from your hard drive not the cd or flash drive.

Otherwise you can copy the i386 folder directly from the XP cd using the above method and then just follow the rest of my instruction.

Hey Thanks, I just formatted the C: drive, but when i try to copy the drirectory over it says "COPY does not support Wildcards or Directory copies.

Thanks.

Um and about the motherboard Im not 100% percent on everything apart from that it is Via.

Ok so I searched and found the "set" command
but i need to enable something called group policy snap-in
how do I enable this?

You can't use the Group Policy snapin until you have windows installed. Try the following:

xcopy d:\i386 /s/e/f c:\

Can you see the usb drive from recovery console? Another way would be to wipe the usb drive - format it and copy the entire XP cd contents across to it and then boot from the USB. I'll need to know the exact motherboard model number to know if this possible though. If you open the case you should see somewhere on the motherboard printed VIA and letter/numbers this should be the model number.

Its a Via Vt8325

I can see the USB from the recovery console and the Xcopy command cannot be recognized.

If you can see the USB stick and access it from recovery console - then go to the i386 folder.

Type: cd i386
then type: winnt.exe
This should start installing XP from the USB.

It says when I go to G:\I386 (the usb drive) and type winnt.exe, it says that it is an invalid command, what should I do ?