When I try to boot Mandrake 10.0 from cd, it automatically boots to xp. It even does this when I disable booting from HDD in BIOS. My boot sequence is 1. CD ROM 2. DISABLED 3. DISABLED, and somehow it still boots windblowz from hdd. I have tried using this same boot pattern with a Knoppix Live cd just after trying Mandrake and Knoppix works flawlessly. Also, when I insert the Mandrake 10.0 cd when running windows, it starts up the GUI correctly, and if I try to "Install" it says it will restart my computer and begin installing Mandrake when it starts up, but I think Windows stops it from doing this or something cause it does not attempt any install when it starts up, is this another evil M$ plot? I have heard one thing about Lite-On drives not working correctly to install Linux or something, but heres my hardware layout just incase:

Abit IC7-G mobo
P4 2.8 cpu
Kingston 512 MB DDR ram
WD 80 GB SATA hdd w/xp pro installed on full partition
Aopen cdrw drive

Thanks for your time, and any thoughts or solutions.

Try using cd2 first - it may (if you're using Community) let you boot, then ask for cd1.

u could boot it using a floppy by using the rawwritewin program in cd1 in the dosutils folder , and choose cdrom.img from the images folder

rrsc16954 is correct. I have the same problem. It is a known issue with Mandrake 10.0. See

http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/errata.php3#install