Ok.. now we're getting somewhere : ]
None of these steps will erase anything on your hard drive. The only "damage" it actually does is that it resets your date and time and your keyboard and mouse preferences. (Key repeat rate and mouse speed)
No big deal if you ask me...
First things first, reset PRAM. To do this, you need to shut down the computer, hold down Command-Option-P-R keys at the same time and turn on the computer. Now, you need to hold down these keys until the computer makes it's normal startup chime 3 times total. After the third chime, you can let go of those 4 keys. Then let the computer start up normally and attempt to boot the computer from the Mac OS X 10.1 upgrade CD again by restarting with the CD in the drive and holding down the "C" key. (Sorry if this sounds like I'm explaining it to a two year old, but just for my sake I'm going to assume you've never used a Macintosh before : )
Now, if you're still unable to boot from any CD, the next step is to reset Open Firmware. To do this, you would shut down the computer again and this time press and hold Command-Option-O-F and turn on the computer. This will bring you to a white screen that has a buncha jibberish about Open Firmware. From here you will type " reset-all ". Word for word, all lowercase, no spaces, no quotes. Typing this will restart your computer. Try to boot from a CD again. If you can't boot from the 10.1 upgrade CD, try another bootable CD.
If neither of these things work, the next step is to reset the PMU ( Power Management Unit ). The steps to do this is dependant on what kind of computer you have. Try resetting PRAM and Open Firmware first, and reply to this with what model of Mac you're using and I'll tell you exactly how to reset the PMU.
I hope this gets everything working properly.