HELP..........
WHEN I BOOT UP MY OTHER COMPIE IT GOES THROUGH SOME OF THE BOOT THEN STOPS AT ATAPI CD ROM BOOT DISK....
A DISK READ ERROR OCCURRED......
RESTART COMPUTER........
I HAVE TRIED TO PUT WINDOWS XP PRO ED. BOOT DISK (DOWNLOADED FROM MICROSOFT) BUT AFTER GOING THROUGH SOME OF THE SET UP IT TELLS YOU IT WILL NOW START THE COMPIE AGAIN AND GUESS WHAT COMES BACK UP......... YEP!.... A DISK READ ERROR HAS OCCURRED.......
TRIED LOADING WINDOWS 98SE SO THAT I COULD UP GRADE TO XP, IT WON'T DO THAT NIETHER.
PLEASE HELP ME BEFORE I CRACK UP.........

Is this a new computer? Or? Is there an Operating System already on it?

What XP Pro CD are you trying to install? You cannot download XP from anywhere.

As to the 98SE: What exactly happens when you try to boot that?

no my compie is about three years old.
there is windows xp pro ed already on it but it just keeps asking for the atapi boot disk, which i haven't got.and no i did not download the windows xp cd but just the boot disk, which is 6 floppies long.
tring to put windows 98 se in only gets me up to the ssetup screen, then it can't boot from the cd although it recognises the cd in the bios. help

Just to clarify:

Do you have an XP CD? Full or Recovery?

If you try to boot your XP CD you get a Disk Read Error?

After the 6 floppy setup your CD creates a Disk Read Error?
The 6 floppy set is the settup for the CD (in case your CD drive can't boot). After the floppies you need the CD.

& again: you try to boot a Windows 98 CD & you get a Disk Read Error?

You say your current system asks for the atapi boot disk?
Can you please state the exact error message & when it occurs?