first custom built computer project

i had a custom "nova" computer given to me. the motherboard is an ABIT-BE6-II. i have read many good things about this motherboard. the particular items that i like are the Fcable and s-video ports. i tested the hard drive and power supply on a separate computer, so i know that they work. this is my first "real" project.
there is no internet connection supplied to the unit. only mouse, keyboard, and monitor.
the hard drive is a maxtor with 30GB storage and xp installed.
the power supply is a viomax ATX model AT500.N ITEMW606. additional information written on it are as follows;


INPUT: 100V-127V/6A 60 Hz
200V-240V/3A 50 Hz

OUTPUT: +3.3V +5V +12V -12V -5V +5VSb
MAX(A): 30A 50A 25A 0.8A 0.5A 2.0A
OUTPUT: 500W


i am fairly confident that i have everything connected properly, with the exception of the hard drive. the only vacant ribbon cable was assumed to be the hard drive connection.

when i tested the computer, it showed several screens. none of them were the typical windows screen that i am familiar with. then, it displayed a screen similar to this:



Diskette Drive B: None Serial Port(s): 3FB
IDE Pri. Master None Parallel Port(s): 37B
IDE Pri. Slave None SDRam at Rows: 0 1
IDE Sec. Mast r None
IDE Sec. Slave None

PCI Device listing
Device Class
IDE Controller
Serial Bus Controller
Simple Comm Controller
Network Controller
Multimedia Device
Multimedia Device
Multimedia Device
Mass Storage Controller
Mass Storage Controller
Display Controller
ACPI Controller

verifying DMI pool data.........


after over half an hour of seeing this screen, i decided that it may never change. was i wrong for thinking this way? should i have levft it alone and given it more time to process? do any of you experts who have encountered this type of situation have any advice that could help me get this computer to where it is operating properly?