Help!! Can't boot from hd?

[WingWizard]

Okay, first build. Everything's put together properly (I think) and I try and install XP Pro. After formatting to NTFS, it begins copying files, etc. etc., and then reboots. Problem is, it keeps skipping over my HD when rebooting and going right to my CD Drive; if nothing is in there it goes "ERROR READ DISK FAILURE" or something of the sort. I've put my HD (160 Gig Maxtor) as my primary boot, but it still does this. Help!!

Abit IS7-E Mobo
2.4Ghz P4 w/HT
Radeon 9700 AIW pro
Geil pc3200 512 MB DDR

[WingWizard]

anyone?

[originel]

check your jumpers and see what they are set too (you should change it from cable select to master). also make sure you've plugged it into the primary ide channel as opposed to the secondary. also go into your bios and check the boot order and make sure the primary master ide chain is enabled

EDIT: partitioning won't be an issue since XP partitions your drive during the install.

[Bill in SD, CA]

Did you partition the drive?

Bill

[WingWizard]

Yes, jumper is assigned to master; drive is partitioned and (supposedly) XP is installed too; it just won't boot

[originel]

well XP is only half-way installed (there are two portions to the install...one is text based, the other is graphically based).

but anyways...what is your BIOS boot order?

where is your hard drive plugged into?

since the bios is skipping over your hd when booting that means you've got some settings somewhere that don't mix.

i would check and make sure that
A) your hard drive is plugged into the plug at the END of the IDE cable (not the middle)
B) you plugged your hard drive into the primary IDE plug, not the secondary
C) the primary master IDE chain is enabled in the BIOS (it should be)
D) your hard drive appears in the boot order in your BIOS
E) your jumper isn't accidentally set to secondary or cable select
F) if you're CD drive is on the same IDE channel the make sure it is set to slave, not cable select and that it is plugged into the plug in the middle of the cable

any one of these could cause your drive to not be detected

You can access the drive from a command prompt in DOS, right?

And it is set to C: drive?

Something in your BIOS must be looking elsewhere for a boot drive. If you put a bootable CD in, it boots from it? What about a floppy (if you have a floppy drive)?

Recheck all BIOS settings again (and again!) just to make sure.

Cheers
Mick

[WingWizard]

The HD is a master, at the end of the IDE cable (it's the only one on that cable); I have HD as first boot and my CD as second. The bios can see it, it just doesn't seem to wanna boot....but I'll check the settings again

[WingWizard]

Mick: no, I don't have a floppy; and it is set to C, cause we were in the DOS prompt and we could read files off of it. All the settings seem to check out...

appreciate the help guys, keep it coming

[originel]

hmm...interesting...maybe try reinstalling windows? it's possible the bootloader didn't get written to the MBR properly.

oh that reminds me, when in dos you can run fdisk /mbr and that might help.