Also, if nothing else works stick your damn Windows install on a thumb drive.
That's what I do with my install disks. I reinstall a couple of PCs a week, so by putting them on the thumb drive it saves me lots of time because it reads and copies from a USB thumb drive much faster then from cd/dvd rom.
Also, creating a silent install XP disc helps a ton as well. Never have to enter user names, options, cd-keys. Does it all for me.
Nlite rocks for that. Slipstream all updates, drivers, etc as well.
www.nliteos.com
That's what I used for mine, downloaded all the new drivers for Nvidia, ATI, Realtek, and shit. Now, rarely have to install drivers.
For making a thumb drive version, you just create a partition in vista on the thumb drive (4gb +), then do a direct copy paste of contents on the cd to the new thumb drive partion. Needs to be done all through command promp, though.