No operating system - instal xp pro

I could not boot into windows xp pro. Kept getting - system32driverspci.sys - I had tried to repair and also reinstall but it would not let me do either, so then I decided to try w98se. The laptop is an Acer Travelmate 6000 with about 1g Ram. Setup 98se deleted my xp pro and when I had to put a floppy (laptop does not have one) I shut the system down - When I rebooted from the hd I get the Acer Flash screen then the following:
'' Broadcom UNDI PXE-2.1 (build082) v6.2.2
Copyright .....
Copyright ...
All rights reserved
PXE-E61: Media test failed, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Broadcom PXE ROM
Operating System not found''
I am able to boot from the cd. I have managed to start the xp pro set up but when it goes to format I get a message -''setup was unable to format the partition. The disk is damaged. You must select a different partition for xp'' That is the only partition on the drive. The laptop has only one partition. I am now back to the setup screen that has the three choices - setup, create a partition or delete the existing partition. If I delete this partition will I still be able to install xp pro.

I hope I have made sense. Thanking you