XP won't reinstall?

[Eddie Haskell]

I have an ASUS A8N-SLI MB and I want to reinstall Windows XP Pro. I backed up my hard drive (had to do it in safe mode, the computer kept locking up while trying to do anything. The CPU temp seems normal 43C, I moved and removed sticks of ram and I'm pretty certain that isn't the issue but that's why I decided to do the clean install. I changed the bios so it booted from CD, restarted the computer, all went as planned to a point, I deleted the C: partition and told it to do a complete format of the sata HDD , it started reformating, so I left the room. I came back later and I had the bsod stating that Windows could not continue. There was an error code but I didn't write it down I gave it another whirl and it gets to a certain point, (right after the post screen), then tells me "please insert system disk and press enter to continue" so that's where I'm stuck. I've never had this happen before, usually it goes smooth. I'm about ready to just buy a new MB/CPU and go from there but I figured why not ask, certainly can't hurt.
If anybody has a clue please advise, thanks in advance

 

[johnb35]

Do a diagnostic on your hard drive. Download the hard drive maker disk diagnostic utility and run it.

 

[Eddie Haskell]

I've ruled out the hard drive because it doesn't get to the point where that comes into play, it's supposed to boot from the XP cd, not the HDD. I should get to the reformat point and then see failure if the HDD was the issue, I think the bios is corrupt.