[GovtCheese]

I just finished wiping the hard drive on my PC and went back to reinstall it, however once the wipe was finished and the PC rebooted, it keeps popping up an error message when it tries to boot from the CDROM.

"A kernel file is missing from the disk. Insert a system diskette and restart the system."

I've done this several times on this PC before and have never had this issue, and I've tried 2 different XP install CDs.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what my problem might be?

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I've checked to make sure that my CD-ROM is set as the primary boot device, with the HDD being secondary...

I'm completely at a loss for what to do, and it's obviously not the XP install discs because they open up just fine on the computer that I'm on now.

[GovtCheese]

I've checked to make sure that my CD-ROM is set as the primary boot device, with the HDD being secondary...

I'm completely at a loss for what to do, and it's obviously not the XP install discs because they open up just fine on the computer that I'm on now.

[The Skeptic]

I just finished wiping the hard drive on my PC and went back to reinstall it

What is this "wipe", is it reformat, is it files removal?

What do you mean by "reinstall"? Is it repair installation? Full installation?
Please explain what you were trying to achieve.

[GovtCheese]

I used my Paragon Hard Drive utility, Disk Wiper... I have a 330gb SATA HDD, that I have partitioned once.

I was trying to go for a clean install on my C drive, however once the computer restarted after formatting the C drive, it gave me the error whenever I put my Windows XP install disc in the drive.

[The Skeptic]

Just to make sure I understand: you formatted the disk during "normal XP installation, didn't you? {I mean full format (not quick) to NTFS}. If that's correct then the Paragon wipe is irrelevant.

If this is correct then at what stage did the installation fail: Is it when files were copied from the CD or is it later?

Could you connect the hard disk to another computer? If yes, go to My Computer, right-click the attached disk and chose "format". When done, move the hard disk back to the original computer and install XP.