HELP!!! Boot problems w/windows

[patelmp3]

I cannot boot my computer from scratch...
I tried w/the recovery CD and it stops after a while stating critical error
I also tried with my Windows XP CD, it gets close, says its starting windows then says to insert the Windows CD when its already inserted...does it matter that this is the upgrade CD?
I dont know what to do, the hardware is all fine, I wanted to reconfigure ti get rid of a bad virus.
Any suggestions? :-?

[GX1_Man]

I cannot boot my computer from scratch...
I tried w/the [highlight]recovery CD [/highlight]and it stops after a while stating critical error
I also tried with [highlight]my Windows XP CD[/highlight], it gets close, says its starting windows then says to insert the Windows CD when its already inserted...does it matter that this is the upgrade CD?
I dont know what to do, the hardware is all fine, I wanted to reconfigure ti get rid of a bad virus.
Any suggestions? :-?

Clarify about the two CD's involved. As to the hardware being fine we are assuming that, but it is not known for sure.

What problems were you specifically having before all of this? What "bad virus" was this?

[patelmp3]

the recovery CD is the one that came with the computer. It contains Windows Me along with some sony software. The other windows XP CD is the home edition(upgrade edition if that matters).  The virus I had previously would just make my computer really slow and take me to add sites alot, basically adware. The computer still worked but I couldnt get rid of the virus so I decided to try reformatting...

[GX1_Man]

The XP CD is asking for a legal copy of a real Windows CD to be inserted. Unfortunately a recovery CDis not going to help. You will have to install ME again from the restore CD and THEN install Windows XP on top of that. Hopefully you will be give the option to format the drive during install. If so, you should do that.