Hard drive Will Not boot. Help Please

My harddrive crashed this weekend and I had to make my slave a master. I went to install XP into the new drive and everything went well. After all installs where complete I had to restart. The computer would not boot from the harddrive. I had to keep the disk in the cd bay to restart my computer. I still cant get it to boot from the HD. How can i fix this. I tried to install windows twice, still no fix. Please help!!

AMD AthlonXP 2800+ 333 FSB
1 Gig Kingston Hyperx mem
WD 80gig 7200 rpm HD
Geforce 6800GT 256MB
Soyo Dragon Ultra KT400 MB

 

Have you been into the BIOS to see if it is recognised there, and is it included in the boot sequence ??? you get to BIOS by hitting the delete button on boot ...

 

Yea sorry I shoulda mentiond it. I checked my bios settings and it is first in the sequence. I also moved them around a few times to try different boot orders. I still did not prevail. Im wondering if this is a probelm with using an update xp disk on an empty drive. Would it add the boot files to the harddrive. Would I have needed to install an older version of windows full install first? If not How do i get those files on the drive and which do i need?

 

are you doing it with both h/d's installed? if so, i'd unplug the 2nd h/d and see if that helps, you can always plug it in later on. what was the original configuration (master/slave, or CS)? some computers don't like the master/slave configuration (like my compaq), so i had to use CS on the 2 drives. if you installed windows on there, then it should work. you don't need an older version of windows (as you mentioned). i'd delete all partitions (it'll prompt you), the os, and then reinstall it. g/l - sos

 

Yea I only have one drive in right now and ive tried moving the jumper from master to cs and vice verse. No luck. Im still lost. I have everything installed correctly; the harddrive just will not boot without the xp cd in the cd drive. I dont know how to fix this. I shouldnt have to put my cd in the drive everytime i need to restart my computer.

 

If you are using a Windows XP cd that is an UPDATE version and not a FULL version, than you'll need to install an older version of windows in order for the install to work correctly. I've heard there is a work around for that, so you can get all the system files off an Update version, but I don't know what it is off the top of my head. If you wanted to find it, then I say you should try a google search.

 

Hey Tux I appreciate the input. I actually dont have a problem with the OS once i get past boot. When im up and running everything works fine. If you are referring to the boot up files then I guess ill have to start over using the 95 or 98 full disk. Maybe I just need a list of boot files that get added to the harddrive so it will boot without the cd. I noticed on another forum that there is a way using the repair feature on the disk, but I havent a clue on how to do this (my DOS skillz are a bit dusty) it takes me to a command prompt. Anyway any advice on how to get the boot files onto the disk would be awesome. Cheers