Unable to Load Recovery CD

[HenryA]

I have an eMachines T4852. Until last week it was running XP very well. Last week I downloaded Windows 8. This also ran well but I found the Operating System to be very clunky so I decided to reload XP using the Recovery CDs (3 of them). I have been unable to completely load all three CDs except on 2 occasions when the XP Display Window came up but nothing else - no Start button or anything. Most of the time when I load the CDs the machine will spontaneously re-boot half way through the loading process.
Any ideas?

[Geek-9pm]

When you downloaded the Windows 8 sample,
- did they tell you this would happen?

What kind of recovery CD do you have?

[HenryA]

No. They did not mention any problems.
Windows 8 ran well. I just didn't like it.
The three Recovery CDs I have are marked T4852, "Restore CD", "Version 1.0".
When I run them I get a Symantec Ghost 7.5 program. This runs for a while & then just stops without reaching a prompt.
It stops randomly at 7 percent, 51 percent, etc.
It is a shame because when the machine is running it runs well. It is just a problem in loading in the software.
I loaded the Windows 8 software while the XP was running.

[Geek-9pm]

WOW!    You are right. They do not give any warning. Even the tobacco companies give your a warning. (Because its the Law.)

In shat, my recommendation is go get another hard drive. Get XP to work an the spare drive, then explore the original drive.

About seven months ago PCWorld had an article that implied you need to be careful. They recommend a Virtual Box thing.

How to Download and Install Windows 8 Into a Virtual Machine
Here's how to download and install the Windows 8 Developer Preview into a virtual machine on your PC.
By David Murphy, PCWorld    Sep 15, 2011 12:00 pm

We've shown you how to go about installing the new Windows 8 developer preview on a brand-new hard drive or a partition of your existing hard drive--that's easy.
However, most of you probably just want to check out Windows 8 without making a commitment to installing the OS on its own separate drive (or drive portion). No problem! You can still fiddle with the new OS in an environment that's much easier to remove once tinkering time ends, thanks to the power of virtual machines--applications that let you run a virtual PC inside your PC (cue Inception music).  ...

Unfortunately your Norton Ghost can not restore the original system. Looking back, you should have been using Windows 7 and did the new install to another partition on the hard drive. Of course, saying that does not help you now.
Without knowing the  details, my hunch is that then Norton Ghost was not happy with what it saw in  the hard drive.
Can you beg borrow or buy a hard drive like the none you have? Having a spare hard drive is a good investment.
Remove the current drive, instal spare drive. Install XP from your original CD. On a very small partition, leaving enough free space for the N. Ghost. The try and restore to the free spacer. I believe N.G. will work that way, but it has been a long time ago I last used N.G.

Once you get a working system up and running, you can examine your original drive and try to solve the puzzle of what went wrong.
That is the best I can offer.

Maybe others have some worthy alternatives.