Need help with hard drive

[Monsters1]

Hi there.

Something is going wrong trying to set up my computer and I need help desperately.

My hard drive is formatted.
I have my main IDE going from the motherboard to the hard drive to the cd drive.
Windows XP cd is in.
BIOS is done.

When I start up the computer I get this on the monitor: Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media device in selected boot device and press a key.

I have a ASUS P5W DH Deluxe Mobo
and Intil Core 2 Duo Processor E6400.

Any suggestion as to what I should do are greatly appreciated.

 

[lhuser]

Could the computer be trying to boot from a floppy drive?

 

[Monsters1]

If it is, how do i check? I'm pretty computer illiterate.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

You'll want to go into the BIOS and select the Boot tab then press enter. In there you will enter Boot Device Priority and set the CDROM as the first boot device. Press F10 to save and exit. Now, while the machine reboots, watch for a prompt that says "Press any key to boot to CDROM". Press any key and the XP CD should start the setup process.

 

[Monsters1]

Still getting same message with Atapi CDROM as first priority. Any more suggestions?

 

[Atomic Rooster]

Is the hard drive connected to the very end of the cable and set as master with the CDROM on the middle connector set as slave?

 

[BF2player]

You may want to reset the BIOS my taking the bios battery out. Also, make sure everything is plugged in properly and in the right order. I had issues with my computer when I didn't put it the IDE cables back in the right order (primary, secondary etc).