i would start simple and make sure the disk is not scratched. also is the drive a scsi or on a raid array?
if so make sure the drivers are instaled when win xp askes if there are any 3rd party drivers.
win xp cd should be bootable. change bios first boot to cd and when it asks which parttion you want to install there should be a menu to delete partitions. if there are more than one and you do not intend for it to be that way delete them all and then format again.
it shouldnt give you any trouble. if you can get the exact error in full i might be able to know exactly what is wrong.
anyway gl with the install