Compaq recovery disk issues

I'm trying to re-install Windows XP Home from HP Compaq recovery disks from the manufacturer. I had a virus at a point and I formatted the hard drive.

I've checked the hard drive on another computer with various software: no errors, no damage or anything. reformatted two or three times.

Tried to recover with HP's disks and at disk 2 (of 7) I get the following message:
Error! Cannot copy file
C:\PRELOAD\BASE_33.INP from disc
Please eject and clean disc and try again.

I've done that. It's clean. It' NEW. No go. When I "Ignore" the error, it keeps going followed next by a message about C:\PRELOAD\BASE_37.INP from disc not being there.

When I "Ignore" that, it finishes disc 2 and then on disc 3 I get:C:\PRELOAD\BASE_08.INP from disc message. If I "Ignore" that error message, it finishes with the rest of the discs, then reboots and goes to a "One time install" screen and stays there. Forever.

When it is on the above screen I can bring up Task Manager and shut down the processes which brings me to Desktop but, obviously, a ;ot of crap is missing and not entirely functional. Reboot brings me to the eternal "One Time" screen again.

HP sent me another set of discs, but still the same thing.

Oddly, when I use my second (much older) CD ROM drive to install the discs, it skips the first (33.INP) error and goes to the 37.INP and the 08.INP errors.

Before I got the recovery discs, I had loaded up Vista Basic, however, because It's from my other computer, I can't use the activation code. Also I had installed XP Pro bootleg (non-activate able) and it worked ok, would give me IE or Firefox shutdown screens often enough: encountered a problem need to debug, bla bla bla.

Any ideas? Very frustrating!!

 

As the Recovery Disc #1 starts up, it asks if you want to reformat and sets up the partition at that point.
By the way, i just reinstalled the XP Pro and it's running like a charm... I'd still like to get the original setup if I can.