Did you enter the BIOS /SETUP on boot up and make sure that the boot sequence has the CDROM as first boot .

Also, you have to watch carefully. If you've already followed caperjack's advice, there's a little message that will show up, saying

Press any key to boot from CD.

This differs from the Windows ME/98 install CDs, which bring up little menus, asking what you want to do. To my recollection, 2000,XP, and 2003 server all use this new method to choose booting from CD.

yep, thing is, ive tried all that bios setup
and as 4 the boot from cd message?, i see nothing of the sort, i know to look 4 tht and could see it, it just boots the comp up as normal wen an os is installed or if not then it would carry on as if theres no cd in the drive, it simply doesnt boot with it,

i dnt kno wot to try

Danniboy. (thank you for your help!)

so does the bios detect the cdrom drive as being installed .

yes it does, i think it must be sumthing to do with the cd a friend of a freind made it for me, and they might have made modifications to it, i mean it works n all, but it just doesnt boot up witht the comp so i hav to install like windows 98 or sumthing first so i can do it while in windows,

its the long way round but at least it works in tht way, i am just wondering if this has happend to anyone before or if anyone might kno wot it might b thts makin it b like th

Well, there is the problem,
One... you should have your own real copy with its' serial number

Do you have a copy of 98 around...?

If you can boot to that you will know your hardware is set up correctly

You might try putting in a base OS of 98 and then running the XP install

You know you will need a legit serial right?
That it checks on the internet when you connect...etc...

mabe your right, aparently its a legal copy, my friend said that its ok to copy it cos it can be used as an upgrade but i dnt know,

if you were to copy an xp disk, (thats ilegal right?)
would the copied version not be as good? would it lose the boot with the computer ability or sumthing?

as for the serial, theres one on the bak of the case, i havnt got any angry letters from microsoft and its all seems to b workin ok at the moment wot should i do?

XP can be used for 30 days without activating; sometime before the 30 days is up, it needs to be activated. Each XP CD can only be activated on one computer at a time. Even if it's a copy, the codes are embedded so it can't be activated on more then one computer (it would have to be removed from one computer before it could be activated on another).

I know personally that you can download CD images of Windows XP from MSDN and use them legally, provided you're an MSDN Subscriber (I'm a Universal subscriber, so I should know). But, if your friend has an MSDN Academic license and you don't, you shouldn't be using his software. Additionally, you can make a 1:1 copy of a Windows CD, or you can even copy the i386 folder (the installation files) to a network location or other hard drive, and you'll still be legal, providing you're using the files within the bounds of your licensing agreement.

I know that when you burn the CD correctly from them, it acts just like a retail CD, and you should be able to boot directly to it. If your BIOS is configured correctly, and it doesn't boot, you must not have burned it correctly.