ahhh this is killing me!

Hello everybody, ive got an issue that makes no sense and is killing me.

i have a very old hp 742c computer.
i have formatted it like 50 times, but its been like 6 years since the last time...
im trying to format it and i got a xp disc from a buddy...its for dell computers, but does that really make a difference?
anyway, when i go into bios and check out my primary/secondary drives, it detects my hard drive but the other 3 slots say none. ive set the boot sequence to cd-rom first. the funny thing is, when i actually get into windows, it detects my cd drive and i can play dvd's and i actually put in that xp disc and it loaded up and all is fine and dandy, but for the life of me i cannot get it to boot from the cd. ive tried swapping the ide cables, and that didnt do much but cause more problems, i have 2 ide cables, both masters going into the drives. primary is harddrive, secondary is cd drive. but bios just doesnt want to see it. how is it even possible for bios not to detect it but everything works fine once im in windows? is it my jumper setting? i know its not the cables because i got it to boot windows using both of them, but still could not get it to detect the drive. i tried using one cable, putting the cd into master, and hd into slave, then it didnt even detect the hd...now they are both back to master. whats the possible solutions here guys? thanks for the help

 

check the jumpers