System is not installed!!?

[Trembor]

Ok this will take a while to write so forgive me.

I recently built a new system and have been having trouble getting the OS installed onto it.
EVERY time I would get post the log, I would get the below message:

System Is Not Installed...
Hit a key to reboot. (YAY! so I reboot) (then the below message appears)
Boot from CD :
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER.

I made sure after seing this for the first time to set CD as primary boot in CMOS. After moving the IDE cables around and making the CD Drive as IDE1 Master...I got the idea to just make the HDD I will be using a Slave on my other system and install the OS that way.

So i did just that, I successfully installed WIN XP PRO onto the HDD. So I take the HDD, and put it back into the new build. I go into CMOS and make sure that HDD is now the primary boot....

And i still get the same message! (System Is Not Installed)

Im stuck! I know the CD/HDD are both fine (new) and that the CMOS should be fine....anyone have any ideas???

 

[alphanumeric]

If you made that drive a slave in your other system and didn't disconnect it's hard drive with windows installed on it you likely setup a dual boot in that other PC. The hard drive you slaved won't have any boot files on it, they are on the boot drive of the other PC. Also if the other PC doesn't have the same identical hardware as the one you are moving it to all you will likely get are stop errors or blue screens because the wrong drivers will be loaded.
One way to start the install in another PC is to use the syspart command.

Is the CD you are using to install XP an original or a copy? If it's a copy maybe it's not bootable!
I would set the drive up as the primary master drive and the cd-rom as primary slave or secondary master. Then set the first boot device as cd-rom and second boot device as HDD 0. You may have to hit a key on the keyboard to boot from the cd-rom, I do on my PC. Watch the screen to see if you are prompted to do so.

 

[djnes]

It sounds like that message is coming up before the it tries to boot from a drive. Have you tried updating the BIOS?