Storage

Did the computer boot into Windows setup? Your position says "Other" so do you know what to do from there?

By booting off of the XP Home disk, you want to go to "Recovery Console" and when you get to the command prompt, run "chkdsk /r". If that comes back and says something like "errors found and have been fixed" run the same command again and see if it comes back clean. If clean, try to boot normally.

If the above is not successful, then I suggest bringing your computer to a shop for service because either your registry SYSTEM hive has become corrupt and MAY be able to be restored manually from a backup or system restore, or the hard disk is failed or failing and needs to be replaced.

And set the Optical Drive tot he First Boot Device.

So turn on the computer and press whichever key is listed on the Makers Logo Screen to Enter Setup. Could be Delete, F2 or some other Key but it is listed on the First screen that appears. When you are int he BIOS Setup navigate to the Boot Options Tab and press Enter then highlight the Boot Order and follow the prompts.

To move around and inside the BIOS you generally use the Arrow Keys but this to will be listed on the bottom of the page so read what the system is telling you to do.

When you have set the Optical Drive to the First Boot Device Save the Settings and Exit the BIOS and with the XP Install Disc in the Optical Drive restart the computer.

When you get the Prompt Press Any Key to Boot Off CD press any Key on the keyboard and follow the directions above to run Check Disc.

Col

Looks like the file got corrupted, the only way I know is reload the XP from scratch, maybe this time use steady state will last a lot longer.