Windows XP forum: Major XP Installation Issues

Starting System:
HP m8330f / Vista Home Premium / 640GB HD / 4GB memory / GeForce 8500GT graphics / TV tuner

Please help!

I bought an HP m8330f in January, and it had Vista preloaded. I am very unhappy with it, and have software that won't run on it. I purchased a copy of Windows XP Media Center Edition (OEM, as there is no retail version of this one) so that I could dual boot the system. I realize I have to hunt down all of the system drivers once XP was installed (and that the possibility exists that I cannot find all of them for XP), but I cannot even reach that point.

I partitioned one of the HD's in half and installed XP on the other half. The installation appeared to go OK, until the end. Here are the problems I've had or still have.

1. After finishing with the second XP disk, the computer prompted me for the SP2 disk. No such disk was included, although I have a disk labeled "Updates for Version 2005". This is not the disk it wants, but choosing "Cancel" seemed to allow the installation to continue.

2. I never saw the final stage of the installation ("Welcome to Microsoft Windows XP") where I enter user names, network specifics, activate automatic updates, etc. After the second reboot, it simply went to the desktop.

3. Most odd to me - Internet Explorer is nowhere to be found. The ONLY place it appears is "pinned" to the start menu, with a default icon (the one that Windows displays when it doesn't recognize a file). XP cannot find the file, and neither can I. There is no IE anywhere in the I:/Windows folder (yes, XP is on drive letter I).

4. I can access Computer Management, but Disk Management does not work (it cannot start).

5. NOTHING can connect to the internet (broadband with a router), yet it has a general driver for the network card. This is a wired connection, but when I click on the left-hand option to setup a home network, I get an hourglass for about 2 seconds, and then nothing.

6. I tried to install whatever is on the updates disk (described above), but it says it cannot start the installer (possibly because I am in safe mode, which I am not).

7. I tried "Repairing" the XP installation, but to no avail.

Just for testing purposes, I setup Virtual PC in my Vista partition and tried installing XP in a virtual environment. All 6 of the points above also apply to the virtualized installation.

I have never installed a fresh OS before (always through the recovery disks from the PC manufacturer), but I know the XP installation should be pretty self-explanatory. Can anyone give me any insight as to what is wrong and if/how I can fix it? thnx!