What are the options if WinXP Setup will not run?

This error message was received when trying to boot from the WinXP Pro CD.

"An error occurred while Setup was updating partition information on:
156328MB Disk0 at Id0 on bus0 on atapi [MBR]
Setup cannot continue. To quit Setup, press F3."

I was trying to do a repair install because previously normal booting had
failed, after the normal one bleep, with the message "We apologise, Windows
did not start successfully." Options were given to Start in Safe Mode, or
Use Last Known Good, or start normally. No option worked.

To get a working computer back again, I replaced the HDD containing WinXP,
and then had no problems after running Setup successfully.

Could I/should I have done anything different when getting the message
"Setup cannot continue"? I treated it as a hardware fault. Might it have
been a software fault? What are the options if Setup will not run? If it
happens again, what should I do?

Regards.

Cycle