XP SP2 installer , ( I am doing a repair , could be upgrade) second
boot fails.
do a shift + f10 for dosprompt.

then change to the cdrom drive ( which will D
d:
fails. (OOPS)
wow , works WHEN you boot from cd, but not on second boot.

tried my cdrom, dvcrom drive in both Master , slave and all perms.
no go.
removed all drives but C: ;and Cdrom.
no go.

IT WAS BIOS.
my boot order is CDROM , HDD-0
i changed it to floppy ,cdrom and hdd0 and now the problem is gone.

full story:

I tested the ability to see the cdrom by booting xp install and shift+
f10 on frist menu.
this mode is a dumb , command prompt ( eg , no delete tree or wild card
DOS).
it sees the Cdrom.

so this is a second boot problem , you know when you boot thru the CD
and see the
blue screen and it says39 minutes to go .
The message about cant find 'asms" folder and then
BOOTDISK:CDROM0:/I386

THE MESSAGE IS DISPLAYED ANY TIME IT CANT FIND THE DISK OR IT IS
CORRUPTED.
ms, HAS YOU COPY THE FILES TO THE C: DRIVE,
NO YOU CANT DO THAT , CUZ THE CD IS DEAD.

brand new AMD K7 2200 on chaintec mobo, 7NJL3 + SCSI3 HDD 18g. 512ddr
I had a corrupted registry, that i killed , removing a bad driver.
all is well. Boink.