messed up install of OS

Hi i am new here so hello to everyone,
And also new to computors, my problems is after a couple of attempts i managed to install xp, its going ok but when starting up it comes up it says " Verifying DMI Pool " then goes onto " Boot from ATAPI CD ROM and again Boot from ATAPI CD ROM " then i get a black screen with a choice of 2 windows OS to choose from, is there a way to get around this without cleaning the drive and starting from scratch again?
Thanks for any advise.
bluey

Some info on the verifying dmi pool data even tho you are not freezing:

The computer stopping at " verifying dmi pool data..." can be caused when the boot devices on your computer are not set properly in CMOS. First, verify that no CD or diskette is in your computer. If a CD or diskette is in the computer attempt to remove this first to determine if it was attempting to boot from it.

If No CD or diskette is in the computer and your computer still halts at the DMI message enter CMOS and verify that the boot options are set properly. We commonly recommend that the floppy be set the first boot device, hard drive as the second boot device and the CD-ROM as the third boot device.

The computer freezing at "verifying dmi pool data..". may be caused when the hard disk drive settings within CMOS are not set properly. Enter CMOS and verify that the hard disk drive settings are set properly and/or that it is set to Auto Detect.

Also what are the 2 OS? Have you intentionally set up a dual boot system? XP & or? Did you install XP twice?

Thanks Jephree for answering my questions, i went into the setup and they were not as suppose to be, so i set them how you explained, i rebooted and one problem is out of the way, great thanks heaps.

In answer to your question, no, i did not intend to have 2 OS running, when initialy instaling it went to the stage of rebooting to finsh of the instalation
and then it went back to the very start again, thats how i finished up with 2 OS.

One more problem has poped up since the start of this post, i had installed a primary slave as well, previous to the start of this post, to redirect any downloaded stuff, to try to keep the master clean but now it dosen't reckonize the prim\slave when starting up now, i did set it to auto detect but still doesn't show up, i also had a look in my computor and its not showing up there either, any thoughts ?
Thanks very much for your help, its greatly appreciated.
bluey

First off I would recommend getting your XP setup right before adding anything else.

Although the BIOS should recognise the drive (if set to auto-detect) XP will not recognise the drive untill it has been formatted.

I would suggest starting from scratch with XP (unless there is some reason not to).

After the installation of XP finalises remove the CD.

To start the installation you will "Hit any key to boot the CD".

Do this only once.

This is one of those machines that has a mind of their own, now its decided to display the prim/slave, crazy stuff
There is a reason that i really don't want to install again, i have aded a few programs, just starting to get my email contacts sorted out again etc, so i was hoping there may have been a way of deleting the unsed one and just carry on with the one i have made changes to.
The disk i am using for a slave is brand new, so do you have to still format them? i just thought they would be ok, being new.
Thanks for your help Jephree,
bluey

Yes you need to format. Just right click it under Disk Management & Format.

Start/Run/ diskmgmt.msc


There are instructions in this link to remove a redundant installation: FAQ # 20:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html

Ok, Thanks very much for your help.
Bluey