Had XP- formated hard drive - See's Ubuntu, yet will not install Ubuntu, check disc for defect, test memory and can not Boot from 1st hard drive.

Bios is set to load from CD.

Thank you for any help you can provide in advance,
Azmar

I'm confused. Did you ever actually go through the installation of Ubuntu or not? What "sees Ubuntu" if you haven't installed Ubuntu and the cd won't boot?

Is it possible you just booted into a live environment and then shutdown without actually installing Ubuntu?

Had Ubuntu saved as a duel boot - along w/ Win XP - now comp is requesting I have a cd from 98, 2000, Me - etc. in order to load the XP back on which I don't want. Made what I thought was a cd for installing Ubuntu. Will read but will not install.

I am still not sure. You had a dual boot Ubuntu and XP? Am I right? And you formatted XP? From inside XP? I guess Xp will not allow you to format the drive on which it is installed.
What did you exactly do? What do you want to do? Install Ubuntu? It should be simple unless you are doing something weird.

It sounds like two distinct and seperate issues which is odd if there is only one installation disk involved. The prompts for older windows versions sounds like you are inserting a windows xp UPGRADE disk. The second problem sounds like you either have a bad ubuntu disk (iso's can be picky burns) or it's the wrong disk. Try burning your Ubuntu disk from new source files if possible on the slowest speed available. With the new disk try booting into the live environment before trying to install. There is also the option to install from the live environment as well as gparted to verify your hard drives. Finally, if this is going to be a pure ubuntu machine install grub to the mbr.