reinstall of xp fails to read cd rom

I had a program (wincd5) that would disable my cd rom
every time I tried to uninstall the program. I would have
to restore my computer to a previouse date. I activated
my norton antivirus. to make a long story short I cannot
restore to a previous point that had my cd working. I
tried to reinstall windows xp from the recovery console
and it keeps hanging when it reboots and continues the
setup because it doesnt see the cd rom. it asks for a file
(asms i think) and I cannot browse to find it . is there
a way I can kill the reinstall and go back to the old
installation? I installed xp on another hdd but all the
stuff I want is on the other hdd and is "access denied"
any help would be appreciated. my desire is to cancel the
reinstall on my primary hdd if possible. thanks