restart at the start of installation

all I see during install is press any key, then I see a panel saying starting windows, but then the computer just restarts and goes right back to the bios. this is a clean install of windows 7 from the upgrade cd on a 120 gb hd which until recently was working fine with windows xp until I got an error about a system 32 folder being no longer there, so I assumed I had to reformat, but when I tried my windows xp home cd the computer always froze during the installs "searching for previous version of windows", so I purchased a win 7 upgrade cd hoping I could install that,but it just restarts during the install right at the very begining before I even have an option for repair.
What do I do?
Im typing on my old 2001 computer, and the other computer is unable to repair or fix, so I was just hoping I could install fresh. Although it definetly isn't working.
Please help me!

i don't think u understand everytime i try to start the win 7 cd the computer restarts at the very begining splash with the "starting windows" screen.